LAGOS AUGUST 28TH (NEWSRANGERS)-A middle-aged veterinary doctor, Nwanze Ikechukwu, has threatened to commit suicide following the outbreak of swine fever in his farmland in Delta state.
It was gathered that over 100 pigs, among others have been destroyed in his farm following the swine fever outbreak.
According to him, over 645 pigs in his farm were being threatened by the flu which he claimed had no cure. “I have lost over N9million and the farm is worth more than N85million,” he said stressing that over 80 percent of funds to establish and operate the farm was borrowed from banks.
The embattled medical expert explained that though other states had experienced the outbreak earlier in the year, it was not envisaged that the disease would get to Delta state.
He said the farm was duly registered, adding “once the swine fever outbreak enters a farm, it must clear everything in it before leaving, I am appealing to the state government to assist me because all I am considering now is to commit suicide.”
The swine fever, experts say, is a contagious viral disease of domestic and wild swine transmitted by contact between healthy pigs and those infected. The United Nations and the World Health Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) had expressed concern over the escalation of the virus which has caused a massive decimation in the population of pigs.
Meanwhile, the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, has said that fees running into millions of naira were annually waved for patients in the hospital, contrary to public allegations on the detention of sick persons
The chief medical director of the hospital (CMD), Dr Victor Osiatuma, who spoke to our correspondent in Asaba said that the allegation of patients’ detention was not a true representation of reality. “The law states that within the first 24 to 48 hours in the case of an emergency, a patient is entitled to healthcare with or without money. when such people come in, we commence treatment and just record whatever the bill with the hope that a good Samaritan will defray it someday.
“So, we end up having a lot of patients who come here without paying a dime. But the hospital is not a charity organisation and we cannot keep pouring resources and nobody (gets) to pay the bills. No hospital will allow you to owe up to a million naira and continue to treat you. It is not done anywhere. We don’t detain patients; we are not a detention facility but the reason we ask such patients to stay is for philanthropists who intend to defray their bills to meet with them, otherwise, people may begin to suspect us of fraud”.
Osiatuma, however, commended the wife of Delta state governor, Mrs Edith Okowa, and other good-spirited individuals for defraying such costs for patients who could not afford the bills and expressed concern over the highly congested morgue of the hospital as orchestrated by police and FRSC for dumping unidentified corpses without adequate preparations for their disposal.
He said” As I speak with you, I have over 40 unidentified corpses waiting to be disposed of in the morgue, and some of them have been there over a year ago and we cannot keep pouring resources and nobody is paying the bills”.