Health communication expert urges Nigerians to embrace regular medical check

A cross section of people at the medical outreach

A Health Communication Expert, Ms Kemi Olawoye, has called on Nigerians to cultivate the attitude of regular medical checkup in order to take charge of their health.

Olawoye, the Chief Executive Officer, Genuine Health Africa said this at a medical outreach organised by Genuine Health Africa, a health communication company, at Oniru Market in Lagos.

She said that regular medical checkup would help every individual to identify or diagnose any disease in their body system.

“We are here to celebrate the festive period with the Oniru market men and women by providing medical outreach such as checking of blood sugar, free eye test and dental checkup.

“We plan to provide free medical checkup and also share condom because we know that a lot of things will happen during the New Year.

“We decided to show love to them by providing health services, because we observed that people have poor health thinking behaviour, poor health literacy which is affecting the overall health outcome.

“Health literacy means the ability to understand information on health-related issues and apply that knowledge in making decisions about your health needs.

“Our plan is to attend to over 250 people by making sure they are properly screen of eye, dental services, blood pressure and blood glucose level,” Olawoye said.

Also speaking, Dr Oluwayemisi Soyobo, an Ophthalmologist called on the Federal and State Governments to provide more affordable eye care centres in the country.

Soyobo, who works with an NGO, I care Family Vision, in Lekki, Lagos, said that more affordable eye centres should be provided to sensitise people about the need to take care of their eyes.

“People should have access to eye care services annually because most people walk around blindly and lots of people are not yet aware. The main reason we are here is to support the organiser by doing free eye checkup and distributing reading glasses to the market people.

“We should always preach about annual eye check; it will help to diagnose early, quick treatment and how to manage the any eye problem,” she said.

Also, a Dentist, Dr Jamal Ilupeju, said that the medical outreach was planned to impact positively on the lives of market men and women.

Ilupeju, who works with the S-Dental Clinic Ltd., Lekki,  said:  “Poor oral hygiene is a major problem with people; but good medical checkup and regular visit to dental centres, will help to eradicate mouth diseases.

“Poor oral hygiene causes plaque which happens when we do not brush or brush our teeth properly to take out the remains of foods we have eaten.

“Plaque always accumulate over time which begins to decay and affect the gum, it may lead to bad breath,” he said.

Ilupeju advised people to always brush thoroughly twice a day and floss daily to remove the build-up of plaque and reduce any intake of sugary foods.

“People should learn to visit any good dentist at least twice every year to reduce poor oral hygiene,” he said.