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Video Of Nigeria's Fake Doctors: A Must Watch
Posted by Ifeanyi on Fri 28th Nov, 2014 - tori.ngGo through any city or large town in Nigeria and the chances are you will come across numerous privately owned health clinics, doctor's surgeries and hospitals.
This is so because Nigeria's health system is ranked at 197th out of 200 by the World Health Organisation. Reason for this is because the health sector is poorly funded and fake drugs and poor private health centers try to fill in the gap.
Go through any city or large town in Nigeria and the chances are you will come across numerous privately owned health clinics, doctor's surgeries and hospitals.
This is so because Nigeria's health system is ranked at 197th out of 200 by the World Health Organisation. Reason for this is because the health sector is poorly funded and fake drugs and poor private health centers try to fill in the gap.
But while there are many legitimate private health providers, there are many more that are completely bogus; unaccredited, unregulated 'quack' doctors , con artists and criminal scammers for the most part who ruthlessly exploit the credulity, ignorance and desperation of the poorest and most vulnerable people in society. Indeed they are so prolific that a survey carried out in Nigeria earlier this year found that more than 50 percent of the population had received 'treatment' from the quacks at one time or another.
A Nigerian doctor,Professor Alex Dodoo, who monitors patient safety for the World Health Organisation in West Africa and has dealt with quacks for years points out the obvious dangers of dealing with fake doctors:
"If one is not licensed by the state, anything that one does is illegal. Going to see them is dangerous. Period. Would you sit in an aeroplane where the pilot says 'OK hello, I'm the pilot, but I've not been licensed!' No way! You put your health at risk and you can die."
But it is something that has long bothered Rosemary Nwaebuni, a reporter who lives and works in Nigeria's Delta State. She has encountered many people who have suffered at the hands of fake doctors, particularly women who have been the victim of botched abortions, and she is frustrated that the authorities have not done more to stamp them out.
The video below shows Anas Aremeryaw Anas, an award-winning journalist from Ghana, who tracked down the quacks and gathered a video evidence of their scams.
This is so because Nigeria's health system is ranked at 197th out of 200 by the World Health Organisation. Reason for this is because the health sector is poorly funded and fake drugs and poor private health centers try to fill in the gap.
But while there are many legitimate private health providers, there are many more that are completely bogus; unaccredited, unregulated 'quack' doctors , con artists and criminal scammers for the most part who ruthlessly exploit the credulity, ignorance and desperation of the poorest and most vulnerable people in society. Indeed they are so prolific that a survey carried out in Nigeria earlier this year found that more than 50 percent of the population had received 'treatment' from the quacks at one time or another.
A Nigerian doctor,Professor Alex Dodoo, who monitors patient safety for the World Health Organisation in West Africa and has dealt with quacks for years points out the obvious dangers of dealing with fake doctors:
"If one is not licensed by the state, anything that one does is illegal. Going to see them is dangerous. Period. Would you sit in an aeroplane where the pilot says 'OK hello, I'm the pilot, but I've not been licensed!' No way! You put your health at risk and you can die."
But it is something that has long bothered Rosemary Nwaebuni, a reporter who lives and works in Nigeria's Delta State. She has encountered many people who have suffered at the hands of fake doctors, particularly women who have been the victim of botched abortions, and she is frustrated that the authorities have not done more to stamp them out.
The video below shows Anas Aremeryaw Anas, an award-winning journalist from Ghana, who tracked down the quacks and gathered a video evidence of their scams.
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