Miira-cell et al: Why kidney failure will kill you in Nigeria

Kidney failure will kill you in Nigeria. Did you say tufiakwa? Did I hear you say that it is not your portion?

You can say that again.

I could have said that kidney failure may kill you, but I think we have passed that level. It may kill you if you have diabetes and high blood pressure. It may kill you if you live in a developing country like Nigeria with a high prevalence of communicable diseases like bacterial, parasitic, and viral infections. It may kill you if you live in Nigeria with less than 200 nephrologists for a population of over 200 million people. It may kill you if there are already 25 million Nigerians with kidney failure but less than 200 dialysis centers and less than 1000 dialysis machines across the country.

Kidney failure will kill you. Here is why. Besides all the factors listed above that make you prone to kidney failure in Nigeria, there is a new and unexplored one that is likely responsible for the astronomical increase in the number of cases of kidney failures in Nigeria. This new factor is the unregulated explosion of foreign and traditional herbal supplements that have flooded the Nigerian medication market in the absence of a functional, affordable, and reliable healthcare system.