₦airaland Forum

With an Infant Mortality Rate at 86/1000, Nigeria is ranked lower than war-ravaged countries like Iraq and Congo DR.
The Infant Mortality rate can be used as an economic indicator, just as much as it tells how good the healthcare system is.
Succinctly put, there are about 200 countries in the world that are 'richer' and have a better health care system than Nigeria.

Many reasons can be implicated for this, but from my experience, the single most important reason is the government, who have been trying to 'climb the tree from the top'.
I am referring to the excess funding of teaching hospitals as compared to primary health care centers.
Dr Olikoye Ransome-Kuti (the best minister of health Nigeria ever had), started the drive of primary health care centers, but this was killed by successive administrations. I remember how much he advertised Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) for dehydration, which remains the number one killer of infants.
If government provided a decent primary health care center in each community, a trader living in Ojuelegba, for example, will not go to Unilag teaching Hospital for her malaria treatment.
Tertiary health centers could then serve as referral centers, for cases that cannot be treated by primary care or secondary care centers.

Other problems with the healthcare system include:

-Staffing: The spate of exodus of doctors in Nigeria is alarming. The solution shouldn't be geared towards increasing doctors' basic salaries alone, but rather to increase benefits such as Hazards allowance, loans etc, and more importantly, improve the tools doctors work with. It is not that doctors in the US, UK or India are better than doctors in Nigeria, but they have better tools to work with, i.e much better laboratories, diagnostic and therapeutic equipment. I think it is even more difficult to get into medical school in Nigeria than in the US.

- Accreditation: It is hard to tell which private clinic is manned by a doctor, registered nurse, auxiliary nurse, or even mechanic in Lagos. Stricter controls should be placed on private clinics.

- Drugs: Dr Akunyili, during her time as NAFDAC boss once stated that about 60% of drugs in Nigeria were fake or substandard. This means it was/is more likely to buy fake or substandard medications than legit ones.

-Access to drugs: Every Uzo, Tunde and Nasir can walk into a pharmacy to buy Ciprofloxacin or any other antibiotic. The problem this causes is that more resistant bacteria strains develop and infections are harder to treat. A common scenario that plays out is a patient comes to the hospital for an infection and the doctor prescribes a medication, but the patient tells him "Oh, I just used this for 5 days, it didn`t work". And they go on and on,

-Education: This is a major problem, and it is compounded by the fact that anecdotal evidence is the first resource many Nigerians seek on health matters. Many people end up with traditional healers who claim they have the cure to all ailments. I have actually seen pastors claiming to cure HIV by prayer!! Many times, these patients end up the worse for it. I remember a patient I encountered while in med school. He was hit by a car, and was given 40,000 naira to fix his broken leg. He visited a traditional healer who charged about 5,000 naira. Well, he came to the Hospital 2 weeks later with gangrene of the leg, and had to have an amputation to save his life.

-Social services: Water, electricity, good roads, etc are basic social services that improve the standards of living of the people. Provision of these would automatically improve the state of health of the people. A universal health care insurance should also be put in place. The current National Health Insurance Scheme is simply not working, just like any other government project in Nigeria.

-Attitude: In Nigeria, the death of a person is as trivial as weekend news. No one really cares. The government will not be moved to build better roads because of car accidents, or better equip hospitals because of increased mortality. They do not care. Since Nigerians have a high fertility rate, we can always replace the lost ones :-)

Finally, a prayer for Nigeria: May God bless the hearts of the common man, to elect a leader that would eradicate corruption.

I was also banned from posting, so i took my talents to other sites that don`t suppress free speech.

FX Elixir:
What I'm saying is even though that knowledge is true, it needs updating. In recent literature, Staph is now been identified as not only causative organism in sexually transmissible infection, it has also been implicated in cases of secondary infertility, most notably PID in the female.
These are things you pick in clinical practice. An academic public health dr can only rely on what is written in the textbook.

I have read the Mayo Clinics staph literature and do agree they're a respectable source of info on the net. However, the info doesn't reflect the current clinical experience in the incidence of staph as an STI.

There are several links and literature on the web which have updated their info on resistant staph infection. Perhaps I can post more of them if you're not convinced. These are academic papers written by clinicians and not just blogs trying to market stuff.

Its only a matter of time before STIs are re classified to include staph across the board. Watch out for new editions of microbiology texts.
Even Mayo Clinic would be forced to update this.

Now that I've been unbanned,

Clinicians currently practice evidence-based medicine. This means practice that is based on scientific data, rather than conjecture or anecdotes.
I need FX Elixir or anyone else to provide a study that implicates Staphylococcus as a cause of PID or secondary infertility because I haven't found any literature suggesting that.

FX Elixir:
Back to hotcoco:
Doctor,
My gripe with u isn't to do with what we both know staph is capable of, historically.
True, anyone would tell staph causes boils, carbuncles, furuncles etc.

What I'm saying is even though that knowledge is true, it needs updating. In recent literature, Staph is now been identified as not only causative organism in sexually transmissible infection, it has also been implicated in cases of secondary infertility, most notably PID in the female.
These are things you pick in clinical practice. An academic public health dr can only rely on what is written in the textbook.

I have read the Mayo Clinics staph literature and do agree they're a respectable source of info on the net. However, the info doesn't reflect the current clinical experience in the incidence of staph as an STI.

There are several links and literature on the web which have updated their info on resistant staph infection. Perhaps I can post more of them if you're not convinced. These are academic papers written by clinicians and not just blogs trying to market stuff.

Its only a matter of time before STIs are re classified to include staph across the board. Watch out for new editions of microbiology texts.
Even Mayo Clinic would be forced to update this.

FX Elixir,

Clinicians all over the world currently practice evidence-based medicine. That is, there's no room for conjecture or anecdotes. If you have found any scientific study implicating Staphylococcus as a cause of PID or secondary infertility, please post it here.

You should see a doctor at a general hospital. Shouldn't be too expensive.

Your acne can be any one of mild inflammatory to moderate to the nodulocystic or scarring type.

Each type is treated differently.

The advice on regular face washing etc is good. You can also start use Clindamycin cream/ erythromycin cream plus Neo medrol for starters.

If it doesn`t improve in a month or two, see a doctor.

Dear FX Elixir,

If you read the link you posted closely, you`d notice it was mentioned that Staph caused Skin Abscesses aka BOIL.

Staph can cause skin infections, throat infections, pneumonia, and sometimes meningitis. The most severe form of Staph infection is the Toxic shock syndrome, where a localized Staph infection leads to multisystem failure because of an exotoxin produced by the bacteria.
Some Staphylococcus strains are resistant to common antibiotics. These include the MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staph Aureus). They are commonly acquired in the hospital (nosocomial) and are treated with specific antibiotics like Vancomycin. Pseudomonas is another organism that commonly causes nosocomial infections.

Ok, now let`s revisit your link.

Staph was labelled as a STI. STIs are generally infections that are transmitted by sexual activity. If we go by that definition, then scabies and lice become STIs too. They don`t affect the reproductive system itself, just like Staph, but they are transmitted by intimate contact.
When we talk specifically about internal or external reproductive system infections, Staph doesn`t fall under any category.

You can read more about Staphulococcus at any reputable online medical resource like www.emedicine.medscape.com or www.mayoclinic.com (more simplified information).

PS: I`m a medical doctor.

I have seen many people say they had Core infections diagnosed as Staph, which the 'doctors' claim is difficult to treat. I think this mass delusion is a serious public health problem.

What you need to know is:

A Core infection can be sexually transmitted or an overgrowth of some resident bacteria or yeast.

Sexually transmitted:

Commonly Trichomoniasis, Chlamydia or Gonorrhea. Others are Core ulcer diseases like Chancroid, syphilis, LGV etc.

Overgrowth:

Bacterial vaginosis (causes fishy odor after sex), and Candida (yeast infection).

For STIs, the patient and the partner should be treated, else re-infection occurs.

Finally, there is no Instruments infection caused by Staph. Some of these STIs i noted above need specialized tests for diagnosis. For example, Gonorrhea and Chlamydia are detected by PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) or special culture. These tests cannot be performed by most Nigerian labs, so they`re commonly treated empirically based on the doctor`s findings on examining the patient.
It is easy to claim Staph causes all these infections they can`t point out in the lab.

PS: Staphylococcus is an important hospital-acquired infection, this is one way it could get in the Cores. (i don`t know how common this is though)

You should see a doctor.

Depending on how bad the acne is, you could get a topical antibiotic maybe with benzoyl peroxide or a Vitamin A analog cream. You could also be asked to use an oral antibiotic along with some topicals.

Staph is the biggest scam in alternative medicine.

Staphylococcus is a bacteria that commonly causes skin and throat infections and pneumonia. It does NOT affect the genitals. One type of Staphylococcus can cause a urinary tract infection in young women, but it`s easily treated with regular antibiotics.

You guys should stop getting scammed. Genital infection is never Staph!!!!