MarkAnumah Medical Missions (MAMMS) carried out a successful medical outreach in Okene General Hospital which is a zonal hospital in kogi state from the 31^st of October to the 4^th of November 2011.

The chairperson of MAMMS: Dr. Felicia Anumah, an Ass. Professor of Endocrinology, led a team of 34 volunteers including 10 physicians, 10 surgeons, 3 Pharmacists, 2 nurses, 3 counsellors, 1 dietician and 5  welfare team members to join  the resident Staff of the Hospital to carry out a medical outreach that spanned over five days.

On arrival  in okene on the 30^th of October, the team had a visit to the Ohinoyi’s palace, His royal Majesty, Alhaji Ado Ibrahim,  who received us with joy and gave us his royal blessing.

On the 31^st, we had a short opening ceremony with the deputy governor, His Excellency Philip Salawu, the Commissioner of health Dr D.S Onuminya  and  the Commissioner of environment  Arc. Mohammed Sule, representatives of the board members of MAMMS including Rev Fr. George Ehusani and Dr. Tom Adaba in attendance.

The volunteer doctors, nurses and pharmacists went into action immediately after the opening ceremony and this continued from 8am to 7pm daily till Friday the 4^th of November. About 7 pharmaceutical companies donated drugs for the missions including: Novartis, Sanofi-aventis, May and Baker(M&B), Biofem,  Zoomota, Novo-nordisk and Apple pharma. We had three pharmacists who worked tirelessly to supply prescribed drugs to the teeming patients; the genuine and free medication on the spot for the patients made them very happy.

In 5 working days, the Physicians were able to attend to 1041 diabetics and hypertensives, the Surgeons and the Gynecologists performed various surgeries on 83 patients including prostratectectomies, thyroidectomies, herniotomies for children, herniorraphies, myomectomies, vaginal wall repairs,  ceaserian sections  e.t.c. The dental surgeon amongst us attended to 90 patients and performed procedures on 40 of them including tooth extractions, removal of cysts etc. The only pediatrician in our midst treated 45 children with various ailments.

The most spectacular case was that of a 60 year old man who had an enlarged prostate gland,  had been travelling from Okene to Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria in Kaduna state to see if he could be operated upon  for 3months with no hope . Luckily  he had prostatectomy done in okene his home, free of charge including medications.

On the whole, the team attended to 1259 patients and 1209 prescriptions were filled in free of charge.

One issue that was worrisome during the outreach is the high prevalence of diabetes and hypertension among the people. We had patients working around with Blood Pressures of 230/140mmHg, Blood sugar level of 725mg/dl. A programme to enlighten our people on behavioral changes to prevent non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension, the causes and their deadly complications will be a good start. However, a lot more needs to be done in the areas of training of medical personnel, the supply of basic necessary equipments, procurement and timely distribution of drugs to appropriate hospitals and clinics.

MAMM is grateful to God Almighty the originator of the Missions  and to the volunteers who worked joyfully and tirelessly throughout the duration of the outreach. We are  grateful to all our partners and donors who contributed generously to make this medical outreach a huge success. We are also grateful to the local organizing committee in Okene General Hospital, the CMD of the Hospital, Dr. Abdulsalami  Abdulkadir.  Finally we want to thank the Executive Governor of Kogi state Alhaji Ibrahim Idris who paid a personal visit on the third day, the commissioner of environment, Arch. Mohammed Sule who assisted us in overcoming the enormous challenges along the way, without which the aim of the outreach would have been very difficult to achieve.

Dr. Felicia Anumah

Chairperson