Lupus Haven Foundation at a medical outreach for residents of Rumumasi community, Obio-Akpor, Rivers State, recently.
By Douglas Blessing
A group, Lupus Haven Foundation has given out free medication to over 400 residents of Rumumasi community in Obio-Akpor local government area, Rivers State.
The beneficiaries including men, women, youths and children were diagnosed and given treatment on malaria, typhoid, Blood Pressure, Eye treatment, kidney and liver check, and ulcers. They were also given free eye glasses and drugs.
According to Mrs. Pat Ozigbo, founder of the Foundation, the programme came to birth after her daughter was diagnosed of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE).
Mrs Ozigbo who noted the challenges faced by so many people who could not afford treatment for illnesses, said “have a daughter that had Lupus, I know how expensive it can be. There are people out there that can’t help themselves so I opened this foundation to be able to touch lives.”
She explained that the December outreach was organised to mark her daughter’s birthday. “May is a Lupus month, we have free medical like we are doing now and today is her birthday, so we organised another medical outreach to touch lives.”
Mrs Ozigbo disclosed “The record we have now is 400 patients but when we go out for such free outreach, the limit we always look out is 250 to 300 people to take care of.
“My daughter initiated the December medical outreach, she said if she cannot reach them individually at homes, she can reach them as we organise something like this. At leas we have 100 glasses for those that have problem with their eyes.
“We reach out to people with Lupus, give them some token. You know Lupus wasn’t known but recently we have doctors handling the illness in Port Harcourt, we go to UPTH but unfortunately, we lost one of the patient two months ago, a 19 years old girl”.
To the Lupus survival, Ijeoma Ozigbo, “What better day to help others than my birthday. Rather than spend money in frivolous things, I should use it to touch the lives of others that cannot afford certain things.
“Today, we are actually giving people eye check, some have issues with glaucoma, we are giving out glasses, we are checking blood sugar, malaria, typhoid, ulcers, normal kidney and liver check as well”.
Prof. Aaron Ojule, a staff of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and the University of Port Harcourt, explained “Lupus Erythematosus is an autoimmune disorder which affects tissues of the body.
*It is not restricted to any particular organ, it can affect the eye, kidneys, liver, among others, hence it is multi-system/mult-organ disease.
“However, there is no symptom that is particular to it, which makes it difficult to diagnose; it requires some specialised tests, to be able to confirm it, but because of its high prevalent rate, the prompt for the increasing awareness.” he said.
