Asthma: Omron Academy seeks better treatment for patients

With over 15 million people suffering from asthma in Nigeria, health professionals and stakeholders under the Omron Academy have disclosed that strict adherence to asthma medications and proper control of the disorder would prevent severe asthma attacks that can lead to death.

To this end, the Academy has trained pharmacists in Lagos on proper monitoring of patients. Speaking in Lagos, a Consultant Chest Physician, Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof Gregory Erhabor said when a patient admitted for asthma is not properly treated, such a person stands a higher risk of developing severe asthmatic attacks. 

According to him, when asthma triggers like dust, dust mite, pollens, and environmental changes as well as thunder storm easily aggravate asthma attack that shows that the condition is not controlled. Erhabor, a Co-Founder of Omron Academy and founder of the Asthma and Chest Care Foundation at the one-day training for Nigerian community pharmacists and other health professionals on “Modern Management of Asthma and Hypertension in Local Communities organised by Omron healthcare and New Height Pharmaceutical advised patients to ensure they have an instrument called a Peak Flow Meter used to monitor asthma control with a view to determine the severity of their asthma. 

This meter, he said, is to the asthmatic what the sphygmomanometer is to the hypertensive or the glucometer to the diabetic. “In addition, working together with the doctor, the asthmatic needs to have a written health management plan to know when asthma is not controlled and what to do in that instance. All these would help avert problems that may arise when asthma is not controlled,” he added. 

On his part, the Country Manager, Omron Healthcare Nigeria and Ghana, Mr Olugbenga Abiodun who lamented that millions of Nigerians are suffering from asthma, said the need to check the trend informed their decision to train the health professionals. 

Noting that the initiative was in line with Omron’s mission, he said the programme was an investment into medical education to help healthcare professionals to improve their knowledge and skills in the treatment of hypertension as well as respiratory diseases, such as Asthma, Pneumonia, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) amongst others. 

Olugbenga who explained that the Omron Academy was developed together with the British Hypertension Society (BHS) and Nigeria’s Asthma and Chest Care Foundation (ACCF) said the curriculum is purely scientific and evidence-based. 

A renowned Community Pharmacists, Dr Folashade Lawal while speaking on drug therapy and resistant to hypertension reiterated the importance of ”out of the office measurement” and challenged pharmacists to meticulously monitor their patients to know what exactly they are doing. She emphasised that hypertension drugs should not be sold indiscriminately. 

The one day training had in attendance pharmacists and medical practitioners across the country with renowned pharmacists, doctors and entrepreneur as faculty members.