High incidents of stroke alarm doctor

A Nigerian consultant neurologist, Dr Francis Ojini, has expressed concern over the increasing cases of stroke among middle age and young people in the society.

Ojini told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Lagos that though there were no available statistics of cases, the increased number of young people with hypertension was worrisome. He said that stroke used to be seen as an illness peculiar to the elderly, but was currently afflicting the young.

“Many of our hypertensive patients now are the young and middle-aged and there are other risk factors that can cause hypertension in the young.

“Change to western diet has now given rise to an increasing prevalence of diabetes; so, these too, will act as risk factors for stroke occurring in the young. We also know that some genetic factors can also play a role in causing stroke in the relatively young and people who have sickle cell disease can have stroke,’’ the neurologist said.

The consultant said that recent studies had also reported that HIV could be a risk factor for stroke, especially in the young.

“In fact, if a young person suffers a stroke, one of the investigations will be HIV screening.

“So we are beginning to see young patients who have stroke and who test positive for HIV,’’ he said. According to him, hypertension is prevalent in many people in the country who are not even aware that they are hypertensive. The consultant said that prevention against stroke was still the better option for people in Nigeria because management of the condition was still a challenge. He advised Nigerians to educate about the risk factors of stroke to serve as a preventive measure.

“Diet is important, cutting down on salt, not too much of junk food, going back to our regular meals that we used to have in the past and then exercise.

“The primary thing is that people should check their blood pressure regularly.

“In fact, anytime they go to hospital, they should have their blood pressure checked.

“Also people need to be aware of the signs of stroke and the fact that once they have these signs, they should come to hospital,’’ the doctor said.

According to him, the acronym FAST is conceived to represent the signs. “F- represents drooping face; A- represents weakness of the arm, S is slurred speech and T represents the urgency to report to the hospital.”

Ojini appealed to the Federal Government to make funds available to facilitate the conduct of research with a view to obtaining data on the prevalence of stroke in Nigeria.

“Another challenge is the affordability of a brain scan, which is a requirement to diagnose the type of stroke the person has,’’ he said.