Leading Interventional Cardiologist at First Cardiology Consultants, Dr Yemi Johnson says advanced cardiac care is now available in Nigeria, but the high cost of treatment remains a major barrier for patients.
Speaking during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday, Johnson said heart disease is the leading cause of death among adults in Nigeria, with hypertension identified as the major factor driving the country’s growing cardiovascular disease burden.
“First of all, heart disease is the leading cause of death in adults in Nigeria. It is a major problem and heart disease includes strokes, heart attacks, and other diseases, but number one factor leading to this is high blood pressure.”
He said other major risk factors include diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, poor lifestyle and stress. “Then there’s diabetes, there’s high cholesterol, there’s obesity, just generally poor lifestyle and stress. So heart disease is a major, major problem.”
Johnson said access to cardiac care remains a major challenge because although advanced treatment is available locally, most Nigerians cannot afford the cost of treatment. “Now, access is a major problem.”
He recalled the case of a doctor friend who discovered that several employees of a construction company had high blood pressure and placed them on medication. “Next thing he knows, they come back the next month, they’ve been laid off because the company thought they were too expensive, having to pay for medications and things like that.”
Johnson said the experience highlights the weakness of health insurance coverage and the difficulty many Nigerians face in paying for even basic hypertension medication. “But that shows that we don’t have good health insurance in Nigeria yet. It is there, it is improving, but majority cannot afford simple things like blood pressure medicines.”
He stressed the importance of prevention, saying a large proportion of heart disease could be avoided through early detection, treatment and healthier lifestyles. “So prevention is a major part of all of this. Majority of heart disease is preventable. Majority.”
Johnson also said many Nigerians remain unaware that advanced cardiac procedures can now be performed locally, with several hospitals offering high-quality cardiac services. “You see, many people or most people are not aware that high level cardiology, cardiac care is now available in Nigeria. Pretty much the whole spectrum of cardiac disease can be treated here, not just at FCC. There are quite a few hospitals now that do provide high quality healthcare, quite a few.”
He said the availability of treatment does not automatically make it affordable, largely because the medical equipment and materials required for cardiac procedures are heavily dependent on imports. “The problem is, yes, it can be done, but it is expensive. Even if it’s done by all Nigerians, doctors, nurses, all the other professionals, it is still expensive because 99% of what we use is imported. 99%, if not 100%.”
According to Johnson, the cost can become particularly overwhelming for patients who suffer heart attacks and require several procedures during a single hospital admission.
“And if you imagine somebody coming in with a heart attack, has to have several procedures done, end up spending 10, 20 million naira in one hospital stay. You can imagine the effect it has on the family, because most people don’t have that kind of money. Most people just don’t.”
He said the challenge is not limited to major cardiac procedures, as patients also struggle to afford routine medication, diagnostic tests and long-term treatment for chronic heart conditions. “One is awareness, where to go, what to do if you have a heart attack or stroke, or even know the symptoms of a heart attack. So that’s one. And then the other part is the financial part of it.”
Johnson said the Healthy Heart Foundation’s planned intervention would therefore cover a broad range of cardiovascular needs rather than focusing only on expensive surgeries. “Okay, you’ve actually answered my question for me. It is not just to support open-heart surgery or big items like that. No. We want to provide care for the whole spectrum of cardiology.”
He said the foundation is also supporting prevention, screening and access to medication, particularly for people who cannot afford essential tests and prescriptions. “Prevention, screening, going to see your doctor, you have high blood pressure, you have cholesterol. Some people cannot even afford these tests. So we actually help with all those.”
Johnson said the foundation’s approach also includes community outreach. “We’re doing an outreach in Bayelsa in the next couple of weeks where we’re going to go out to the community, check for blood pressure and things, and make sure we have a way to treat whatever it is they have. Not just make the diagnosis and then run away.”
He noted that while many hypertension medicines are now produced locally, complex drugs used in treating heart failure and other serious cardiac conditions are still largely imported and remain expensive. “Luckily, the high blood pressure medicines are mostly made in Nigeria now. So that helps a great deal.”
“But the complex drugs for heart failure and other complex diseases are still made abroad. They’re expensive abroad. They’re also expensive here. So that is a problem.”
On cardiac research, Johnson identified heart failure as one of the biggest challenges facing cardiology in Nigeria and said the foundation is developing a registry to generate local data on the condition. “Well, we found out, well, one, the most, the biggest problem in cardiology is probably heart failure in Nigeria. All right. And all the treatment modalities are expensive. So one of the things we’re doing now is developing a heart failure registry.”
He said collecting data would help researchers understand the scale of heart failure, determine what could have been prevented and develop appropriate interventions. “With that, we will now see how many people have heart failure, what was preventable, what wasn’t preventable, and how do we proceed to, along that pathway.”
Johnson said the long-term ambition is for Nigeria to reach the level of advanced cardiac care available in countries such as Germany and the United States, including heart transplantation and artificial-heart technology. “And the ultimate game is heart transplant or artificial heart. That’s the ultimate.”
He stressed that Nigeria cannot achieve that level of advancement simply by copying other countries, arguing that locally generated research is essential. “But you can’t get there just copying. You need your own individual, homegrown research to find out what’s going on.”
The research programme, he said, is being developed through partnerships involving universities, teaching hospitals and other institutions, including Lagos University Teaching Hospital and University College Hospital.
“Right now, we have a partnership with LUTH. We’re signing with UCH. Many of our doctors are coming from teaching hospitals, too.”
Johnson also said cardiac care and outreach should extend beyond major cities to underserved communities. “One of our major sponsors, First EMP, have I said it right? Yes, yes. Has insisted we go to Bayelsa and do some outreach programmes, which is what we’re doing in the next couple of weeks. So yes, it can’t just be legal.”
The Healthy Heart Foundation is seeking to raise ₦10 billion to expand access to cardiovascular care. “The Healthy Health Foundation up to date has raised about 3 billion Naira, not just from individuals, we’ve been fortunate to have notable corporate organisations that have actually committed to donate over the open-ended period of time so the donation is not just cash. It is also asking people to even fund or support doctors to come in, especially in-house for over like a year, so that they can not only participate in the procedure, but also help train and skill Nigerians.”
“So we’re not asking for just cash, but non-cash or even access or facilities or even financing. How can we also use that 10 billion as a seed to scale and get 100 billion worth of actual resources, whether it’s financial or non-financial.”
Erizia Rubyjeana
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