Dearth of laboratory scientists, modern equipment responsible for wrong prescription

A Laboratory Scientist, Mrs Tayo Adekunle, on Thursday said dearth of laboratory scientists and modern equipment were responsible for wrong treatment of Typhoid.

Adekunle, who works with the Omron Laboratory Centre, Ifako, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

"I see this as an abnormality, which we refer to in medical cycles as blind treatments.

"The primary cause of this is about the dearth of laboratory scientists in most of these hospitals.

"It is the duty of the laboratory specialists to determine the typhoid level of a patient, if it is one to 12 or one to 100, which is very dangerous.

"A check at various hospitals shows that they don’t have these laboratory specialists who are directly involved in giving accurate result of a typhoid test.

"It is never the duty of doctors or nurses, it is purely the work of the laboratory specialist who takes blood samples to the laboratory for test and gives result,’’ Adekunle said.

He said that some of the hospitals now do referral service by directing patients to the laboratory for test if they don’t have it in their hospitals.

According to him, most patients are being sent out for laboratory test.

Adekunle said, "Another reason for wrong treatment is the complaints by patients that they are financially handicapped.

"So, they bypassed the test and ask to be treated for typhoid only on assumption.

"Once a patient sees that the treatment on the common malaria was not sufficient, maybe the symptoms are still manifesting, they result to the treatment of typhoid.

"What they don’t know is that typhoid does develop resistance, and apart from that, the test only cost between N750 and N1, 200, depending on the laboratory centre,’’ the scientist said.

Adekunle said that apart from the resistance, abuse of any drug also has grave repercussions and side effects.

"Drugs itself has side effects, how much more when it is being abused.

"Test must be carried out before the treatment of typhoid. It is a must.

"I strongly advise doctors to desist from prescribing typhoid treatment without test because of the consequences on the patients,’’ Adekunle said