Training of Nurses on Management of Asthma and COPD holds in Lagos
..... Nurses are key stakeholders in health care delivery, they are fundamental when it comes to respiratory diseases management - Prof Ozoh
...... 13m Nigerians have asthma and there is ignorance about COPD among health workers and the populace, a disease that is unknown can't be diagnosed and treated - Prof Ozoh
.... Infrastructure and education are lacking when it comes to diagnosing Asthma and COPD in Nigeria - Prof Ozoh
.... This training and workshop should be cascaded - Nurse Aketi
Primary Care providers known as nurses in Lagos State health institutions participated in a one day training and workshop programme on the management of asthma and COPD in Lagos on Friday 27th April 2026.
The training workshop had in attendance experts from major tertiary health institutions in the state namely Prof Obianuju Ozoh of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Dr Tochukwu Ayo-Olagunju of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Dr Temitope Ayonda of LASUTH, Ms Titilope Akosa ED Center for 21st Century Issues, officials from the Lagos State Ministry of health led by Director of Nursing Services Nurse Shola Aketi who represented the Permanent Secretary Dr. Dayo Olajide, and participant nurses from health institutions across Lagos State, care service providers, and the media.
Ms. Titilope Akosa of C21st Issues welcomed all the to the training and workshop as she wished the participants a successful deliberations.
Nurse Shola Aketi director of Nursing Services who represented the Permanent Secretary of the ministry of health Dr. Dayo Olajide, expressed delight with the training and workshop programme which she hoped would be cascaded by those present to their colleagues for improved health delivery system in our society.
In her opening presentation, Prof Obianuju Ozoh stated that the training on the management of asthma and COPD is being implemented across five African countries namely Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Cote d'ivoire and Cameron. She stated that the Lagos training session is the second in the series of the programme. She noted that asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease and that Lagos is the epicenter in Nigeria.
She emphasized that nurses have to be strengthened and empowered because they are critical stakeholders in the management of asthma and COPD which are respiratory diseases affecting people globally and a large population of Nigerians in particular.
According to her, "Nurses are key stakeholders in health care delivery across the world, moreso in Nigeria, they are fundamental when it comes to respiratory diseases management". Speaking further, she asserted that "There is global health workers migration in Africa and so we must be concerned about task shifting which has made nurses to be playing so many roles in the healthcare system".
We can't aim to improve asthma and COPD care and treatment without educating nurses, so the essence of the training and workshop is to create awareness and educate nurses who are closest to the patients and the community. "It is important that we educate nurses to be able to understand and identify asthma and COPD in order to be able to recognize and treat patients appropriately within the scope of the care that they need".
"Asthma and COPD are prevalent in Nigeria between 9-10%, 13m Nigerians have asthma, over 50% of them are undiagnosed, and over 90% of them are not well controlled in terms of the care they are receiving and how well their asthma is being managed."
"COPD which stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is even more dire in Africa because most people do not recognize the word COPD, a survey carried out in Lagos revealed that only 6% of the population know about the disease, therefore, it is not diagnosed, because people are not aware of it, including doctors and nurses."
"We don't just want to educate, we also want to create awareness, a disease that is not recognized, can't be diagnosed and treated. COPD is a disease affecting everybody, it is the 3rd leading cause of death globally, yet nobody recognizes and treats COPD, which is an irony". "It is common in Africa, in Nigeria it is 9% of the population, yet people are unaware of the word, not to talk of what the disease is all about".
Prof Obianuju Ozoh emphasized that both education and infrastructure are lacking when it comes to diagnosing Asthma and COPD in Nigeria and there is need to urgently address these gaps to be able to save lives. "We need to create community awareness, provide access to diagnostic tools like spirometer, peak flows, etc which are grossly lacking in our health institutions most especially in the PHCs which are community based and closest to the people".
Dr Tochukwu Ayo-Olagunju of LASUTH made presentation on asthma and COPD and the factors responsible which include genealogy as well as the environment among others. She spoke extensively on triggers which are critical to be avoided in order to avoid having attacks. According to her, "There are periods when a patient suffers from asthma attack and other times, when they don't, but most importantly, patients must be educated to study their health conditions, to identify the triggers". She stated that there are lots of asthma trigger attacks such as adrenaline, stress of the hormones as well as food among others.
Dr Temitope Ayonda in her presentation on diagnostic tools for the management of asthma and COPD, also took the participants through the use of diagnostic tools and how it can applied appropriately for use by patients for maximum effect. She equally invited the participants to come out and exercise what they have learnt by displaying how the tools are used and of which the successful ones, were given prizes like spirometers and peak flows for use in their hospitals.
The one day training and workshop programme on the management of asthma and COPD was put together by the collaboration of Equi-Resp-Africa, University of Edinburgh, Usher institute, College of Medicine of the University of Lagos.
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