Scourge of online consultants endanger public health conditions, as Nigeria abandon hospitals over cost

The digital world has come with a lot of advantages as it has also given birth to a slew of challenges.  Apart from the financial sector, no where else has the benefits and challenge berthed with damaging outcome more than the health sector as the proliferation of online health consultants proffering all manner of cure for  different ailments. 

These online health ‘experts’ are often self-appointed with no professional training in medicine, and some of them claim hereditary and descent from traditional healer families. As it has turned out, majority of them are fraud out to make money from people’s ignorance and health challenges.

They claim to have solutions to physical health challenges  such as diabetes, hypertension, ulcers, etc, and also emotional and spiritual ones, such as recovering from jilted relationship, sending ‘arrows’ back to the sender, battling witchcraft and sorcery etc.

One Size Fits All

Biodun, a 33- year old mechanic has had a bout of challenges in his relationship with the opposite sex over the size of his manhood and his less than sterling performance in the other room. According to him, doctors could not help him, so he continued to endure the shame as one relationship after the other crumbled like a cookie on account of his poor romance life.

At last, a friend pointed to an online health ‘doctor’, a certain Ahmed, who claimed to have the cure for his trouble. He couldn’t sleep all night. At dawn, he sent  Whatsapp message to Ahmed, who agreed to send a dispatch rider to deliver the prescriptions on the pay on delivery arrangement. It cost N5,000 plus N2,000 delivery fee. The drug was Rhino Max. It was meant to ignite performance and stamina, and that night, it worked wonders.

Dangers Lurking

Expectedly, his girlfriend showered him with praise, and for the first time, Biodun felt like a man. Encouraged by the praise and intoxicated by a newfound sense of virility,  Biodun didn’t stop at one pill. He  called Ahmed who sent him more local herbal concoctions and bitters to homebrewed aphrodisiac cocktails. Their sex life became a kind of performance art, and Biodun, the lead actor, until the script took a dark turn.

After a quick nap one evening, months after binging on performance enhancers, his illusion of control was shattered as Biodun woke up to a painful, unrelenting erection, without any pill, stimulation, or warning.

“It was scary, and the thing lasted for about three hours. My head was pounding. I didn’t know what was happening,” he recalled.

The unwarranted erection petered our, but returned two weeks later, shattering Biodun’s belief that it was a one-off thing. The priapism, which lasted for five hours this time, became the turning point for him, forcing him to stop the pills, the bitters, and sundry cocktails. But by then, the damage had already begun; without spiking his system, he couldn’t perform at the frequency he rose to. As a consequence, the relationship fell apart within a short while.

Months later,  Biodun found love again, but in the middle of an intimate moment, a different nightmare struck. “No matter how long we tried, I just couldn’t climax. It was like my body forgot how to finish.”

Haunted by shame and confusion, he finally sought help. A doctor ran tests, asked questions, and delivered a sobering truth: overstimulation from sex boosters had numbed his natural response.

Funke had intermittent bout of malaria when she was advised by her friend to stop wasting his money buying drugs or going to hospital, assuring her of permanent cure. She introduced her to an online health vendor after becoming a paid follower of the so-called vendor. Funke was required to pay a monthly subscription of N400 only to get ‘quality’ health tips that can save her enormous cost of going to hospital.

The vendor recommended that every morning, for seven days, she should drink her first early morning urine laced with salt.

This, according to her, is a permanent recipe for migraine and malaria. Three days after completing the mandatory 7- day regimen, she started feeling uncomfortable in her tummy. This morphed into rolling on the ground with severe stomach ache. She was rushed to the hospital. That was her saving grace. This incident affected her relationship with her husband.

But as many as given woeful lamentations of what they have gone through in the hands of health vendors, there are yet some who have given positive account of the efficacy of online health advice.

Martin, a school teacher told Business Hallmark that when he suffered severe form of diabetes, it was the only health vendor that he contacted that helped him.

“Though, I’m not totally free of diabetes, but I can say I’m out of danger. I’m still taking the herbal prescriptions he gave me. It cost about N25,000. I have a friend who was suffering from eye problem.” He could not afford the expensive treatment the eye clinic was asking for, so he came in contact with an online vendor on  Facebook. The cure he recommended only cost him N5,000 and it worked. After purchasing three packs of herbal concoctions, totalling N15,000 he regained the use of his sight without using recommended glasses. But at the eye clinic, he was charged about N200,000 for treatment.

Cost of Medications

Business Hallmark learnt that the rise of online health consultants is due to the expensive nature of healthcare in the country.

Currently, because of inflation and high cost of drugs, for a family of three to register at a hospital now is not less than N25,000.”  Healthcare is beyond an average Nigerian. It has become expensive and almost unavoidable,”  Dr. Akin  Ajayi, Chief medical director of Trust Hospital, Opeilu, Agbado told this medium.

He noted that to access drugs, genuine drugs is not easy and cost more, coupled with inflation, the cost has gone up.

“I can understand the migration to online scam called health experts. These online vendors mostly are herbal, and have no training in medicine. Some are children of native doctors or local healers, some do not have any training, and yet people are patronizing them putting their health at risk.

“Why? Because of poverty and high cost of drugs, and cost of visiting hospitals which they cannot afford. Unless government wades in we may soon witness a more serious health challenge as a result of this scourge of online health consultants.”

Different Strokes

Dr. Jimoh Awoyemi, a herbal doctor, has a different view. “I’m often surprised by the arrogance of orthodox doctors and health professionals, who always erroneously think that we herbal doctors are fake. I have gone digital for the past five years, proffering solutions to people’s ailments on the pay on delivery basis.

“Some have even visited my clinic. It’s just that we don’t follow orthodox model, but we have our own quality control. We are also less expensive. A man who had a stroke was brought to my clinic four months ago. He left an orthodox hospital who charged N330, 000, but after two months I discharged him and he was normal. I only charged him N150,000.

Another factor that explains the rise and rise of online health consultants is their dabbling into spiritual issues with claims to solve spiritual problems brought about by witchcraft, demons and wicked personalities. Facebook is awash with their presence, and the patronage is growing by the day.

Dr. Ayodele Onietan, a psychologist told Business Hallmark that “First, no hospital can attend to spiritual issues, Nigerians are traditional in nature and by psyche are superstitious, so any problems are always attributed to paranormal or supernatural, mostly witches and wizards. So, when an online health consultants claim to have solutions people will rush for the solution.

The attachment to herbal solution, which is responsible for the rise in digital health consultants is sociological and cultural, Business Hallmark has learnt. In Nigeria as in other African countries, there’s a widespread belief in the efficacy of herbal solution. We cannot separate traditional care from the people.

Even those  living in Western world are still sending money back home for herbs to treat their ailments, ranging from kidney, to liver, hypertension and stroke. Investigations by this newspaper have shown that some herbal solutions are also expensive. Some are well packaged like Yetkem, and have become big brands.

Some herbs cost as much as N50,000  and even more. Findings showed that primary healthcare is still costly for most Nigerians who can not afford two square meals a day, not to talk of tertiary health care, which is way out of the reach of average Nigerian family. This explains the drift to online health consultants.

But, many believe that ignorance of the health hazards of patronizing the so-called heath consultants online, who are not professionals is a big challenge. They contend that with just N1000 or N2000 one can still treat malaria or typhoid at a public health centre.

Ade, a fashion designer says he prefers to go to hospital rather than risking his health patronizing unprofessional. “At least, with just N1000 or N2000,  you can treat  malaria at a local dispensary or health center. It’s only when you have done several tests without response then you can go for those expensive medication”, he said.

He said he has a cousin based in Ireland who is always sending money home for local herbs (concoctions) for all kind of ailment, “And I always wonder why he chose to abandon the quality healthcare in Europe and opted for local herbs. What of the expensive  cost of haulage alone to deliver. Herbs are not as cheap as we think.”

Funmilayo said she decided to abandon orthodox hospital when she went to conduct typhoid test and she was charged N9000. “Can you imagine. I just declined and went online where I eventually bought a herbal drug for N4000 and it worked.”

In some densely populated areas, access to primary health care is nil. For example, the whole of Arepo has not one primary healthcare center in a large population like that.

It’s only at Mowe that there is one, meaning that people in Arepo have to go to Mowe to access a primary health care center, which is a population of over 400,000 people.

Investigations showed that often patients will have to stay long hours before being attended to. The collapse of public health infrastructure is responsible for why people lose faith in orthodox health care.

Many patients have been seen asking doctors to prescribe and allow them go out to look for cheaper versions, which are often fake drugs that worsen their situations.