Professor Olakunte Abiola from College of Health Sciences, Bowen University, Iwo, has called on the Nigerian government and all concerned stakeholders in the health sector to encourage investment in applied research fund that has economic and health values for the nation.
Abiola, a Professor of Chemical Pathology and Molecular Neuroscience, made the remark recently while delivering his inaugural lecture entitled, “Understanding the Secrets of Science and medicine: My journey of faith, held to mark the seventh inaugural lecture in the university.
He expressed dissatisfaction with the level of negligence the Nigerian Health sector had been subjected to for many years. He noted that Nigeria overlooked so many sensitive health issues that needed urgent medical health attention for their prevention and control.
He asserted that research is key to development, health sector inclusive, adding that the more the federal government would make money available for research in the health sector for applied research that has health and economic values, the better would be for the health sector in the country.
In his lecture, he noted the need to address issues of postpartum psychosis that often led to infanticide in the society. He said for over a century, the various studies on mental illnesses associated with postpartum have shown that the incidence of psychosis has remained constant at 1-2 women per thousand births, emphasized that much-improved healthcare delivery and general improvement in the overall standard of living seemed to have no effect on the incidence of this disorder. He added that research on parturition in the rat is a relevant and accepted model for studying human parturition.
Professor also talked about the aetiology of Prion disease, which he described as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of humans and animals, often triggered by abnormal folding of the endogenous prion protein molecule.
He said: “Prions are small proteinaceous infectious particles that resist inactivation by nucleic acid-modifying procedures. The destruction of prison infected materials therefore effectively carried out by incineration. An epidemic of any of these infectious would consequently be accompanied by massive environmental pollution. We, therefore, sought to devise environmentally friendly methods of denaturing prion materials during a possible outbreak.
If the government would be releasing fund to do research on health matters, the development will go a long way to reform the health sector in Nigeria. It is common knowledge that it is the lack of research fund that I’d responsible for disease outbreak anywhere in the world. Nigeria is endowed with seasoned and foreign-trained health scientist researchers in Nigeria, spread across all the tertiary institutions in the country, but lacked fund to work with. Nigeria health sector will not remain the same if the government would allocate sufficient funds to applied research in the country.
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