From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
Several diseases are common in Oshiri, a rural community in Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi State. They include malnutrition, chronic hypertension, chronic gastroenteritis, peptic ulcer, hernia, glaucoma and other eye-related issues.
Many children in the community look malnourished, while adults, including the elderly, suffer some of these ailments without medical care.
One of the leaders of the community, Moses Chima, expressed worry over the increasing cases of eye problems in the area.
“The people having eye cases here are so many. I think something should be done about it,” he told Daily Sun.
Chima was among the over 2,000 patients in the area who benefited from the free medical outreach of the member representing Ohaozara, Onicha and Ivo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Nkemkanmma Kama.
Coordinator of the medical outreach, Dr. Napoleon Eke, said over 20,000 malnourished children and patients benefited from this year’s outreach.
Eke said: “Last year, over 16,000 patients benefited from the free medical programme. Now, we are doing surgery, we are doing cervical cancer screening, we are doing x-ray, we are doing a whole lot of services that we didn’t render last year. So, we are expecting that, at the end of this year’s own, we should be able to attend to over 20,000 patients.
“The common ailments in this community depend on the different areas of medicine. For adults, we have chronic hypertension, chronic gastroenteritis, peptic ulcer disease.
“For the surgical section, the commonest is hernia, followed by glaucoma. Then the commonest in eye diseases, include itching eyes, followed by dry eye syndrome and then followed by cataract.
“For the paediatrics, we have worm infestation and, today, many of them had malnutrition. We attended to some of them that had malnutrition. We referred them to one of our partner tertiary institutions, which is David Umahi Federal University Teaching Hospital, Uburu. So, they are the people that will take over their management.”
Mrs. Chukwu Gladys, an arthritis patient, commended the lawmaker for the free medical service.
“I came here because I have arthritis. My legs and knees are paining me seriously and I have been attended to. I was given drugs free after they checked my body,” she said with joy.
A retired policeman, Ifeanyi Edeh, said doctors recommended eye surgery after screening him. He noted that he had never visited hospital for treatment but only used eye glasses for the eye problems.
“We have never seen this type of free medical outreach in our community. I was screened free of charge and recommended for surgery, which this lawmaker is sponsoring. He has saved lives,” he said.
The state coordinator of National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Nwafor Julius, said the medical outreach would reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in the constituency.
He praised Kama for the gesture and urged other lawmakers to emulate him to improve the health of their constituents.
“We have seen that many people are benefiting from this free medical outreach, ranging from children of 0-18 and women of child-bearing age and every adult.
“We have seen that this man is very good in trying to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality rate in this country and we wish that every other lawmaker will emulate this and do the same thing in their localities.
“We have over 1,500 people here that are being subjected to different tests and screening. We have over 15 sites in this particular mission that we came here today, ranging from cancer, diabetes to every other health challenge people are suffering.
“The best one I like too much is the ophthalmology site, where eyecare is being taken care of and also the general surgical section that involves both children and adults,” Julius said.
Flagging off the week-long medical outreach, Kama said 25,000 persons would benefit from it. He said 16,000 benefited from last year’s edition.
“This free medical outreach started in 2022 and it will continue until our health centres are functioning. We are trying to see if we can do this at least twice a year because the one-year gap before doing it is too much.
“Last year, we reached out to 16,000. This year, we included surgery, cancer screening and you can see all the equipment, x-ray and every other thing is going on. Last year, most people that benefited had eye problems.
“This year, 25,000 persons will benefit from the free medical outreach and you can see the crowd here; they have been coming here since morning,” Kama said.