The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, says persons infected with coronavirus (COVID-19) can be exercising daily and feel generally well but are secreting and transmitting the virus everywhere they go.
Abayomi, who was a guest on Channels TV’s Sunrise Saturday, noted that the state is pushing very hard to explore traditional medication.
He said this while explaining some tips on how to recover from the flu or even the COVID-19.
“Of course, you can support yourself with a good diet, good food and lots of natural therapies and that’s one thing that we are pushing very hard in Lagos – our traditional medicine,” the commissioner said.
“We have a traditional medicine board, a traditional medicine research committee and I believe that there are several natural therapies that we need to investigate”.
Another important remedy according to the commissioner is adequate sleep.
“One of the best ways to raise your immune system is sleep. As the body rests, it allows the immunity to do its job.
“If you get sick with the flu or with Coronavirus, the best thing is to stay in bed and get lot of rest and allow your body’s energy to be consumed by the immune system which is trying to do the curing,” he explained.
With the traditional remedies, however, Abayomi raised concerns that issues such as deforestation and a destroyed ecosystem, may have limited the nation’s ability to explore the option of herbs.
“We have a whole ecosystem of plants and herbs, if we haven’t destroyed them all by our wanton deforestation, we would have access to a lot of therapies from the environment that we could test out.
“Destroying the ecosystem is what’s causing these zoonotic events and its depriving us of our natural heritage to find traditional solutions to these problems,” he said.
Abayomi alluded that the state has moved from the imported stage to the community transmission stage.
He said, “We’ve moved from the imported stage to the community transmission stage and the virus is now jumping around and it is a highly contagious virus; it spreads very easily.
“The difference between flu and coronavirus is that if you catch the flu, you will know you have flu. You’ll be terribly unwell, there will be no doubt that you are sick.
“Most people don’t actually know they have coronavirus. About sixty to seventy percent of people have a very mild illness it might just feel as if you had a rough day but you’re secreting the virus and therefore you’re transmitting it.
“And therefore a moderate proportion of people have symptoms and a smaller proportion will have a severe and critical illness. You could have coronavirus and be jogging. That’s mild it could be.”
He said the state is aware of the difference in the social segments of Lagosians and is working on policies suitable for different strata and parts of the society.
He said, “Every segment of Lagos requires a slightly different strategy. It can’t be the same cap fits all. Someone in Victoria Island doesn’t have the same priority as someone in Makoko for example. What Mr Governor is trying to do is to size up all the respective situations. He gets his situation analysis every day. He debates with his cabinet.
“Livelihood is the priority and COVID-19 is just a threat to livelihood. There are many other threats to livelihood. And so in life, you balance those threats. And that other threat may be hunger or other kinds of sicknesses.
“Lockdown is a component of social distancing and there are many factors to social distancing. What we are trying to do is to reduce the opportunity for the virus to travel from one person to another.
“If seventy percent of Lagosians are in the informal sector, they have no safety net, they live from day-to-day. What they earn is what they eat, it’s not like a higher social-economic segment that has reserves.
“It is important that you allow your imaginations to infiltrate this segment of society and make realistic decisions that don’t disconnect you from these people. You could have a double assault in both ways if you make the wrong kind of decisions.”
Health
