Watch out for quacks in lab coats, stethoscopes - Health professionals warn
The Director of Medical Affairs of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Accra, Dr Frank Owusu-Sekyere, has warned the public not to seek medical advice and treatment from persons who are not trained to offer such.
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He said he was particularly worried about the proliferation of quacks parading as doctors in the media space.
“These people have stethoscopes around their necks and are referred to as “doctors.” If you listen to them, you realise they have no idea about health or medicine. For some of their utterances, a simple Google check will tell you that this is not right.
“Yet, they continue to spew these on national television daily and these things when they go unchallenged for a very long time become “facts”. No wonder people are hooked to them and patronising their products and services,” he told The Mirror in an interview last Thursday.
Activities of drug peddlers
For decades, quack health professionals and people posing as herbalists have sold medicine and recommended treatment for different health conditions.
The most common drug peddlers are those who ply their trade in buses and at lorry stations selling different things they describe as local herbs and imported medicines which cure almost every disease.
In recent years, the trend of some of these self-styled “experts” is wearing white lab coats and stethoscopes posing as health professionals.
Dr Owusu-Sekyere explained that, even in the hospital setting, some professionals including pharmacists, lab personnel and radiographers wear white lab coats.
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Also, although stethoscopes are commonly used by physicians and nurses, having one did not qualify an untrained person to give treatment.
“Even outside the hospital, mechanics have stethoscopes they use to listen to the sound of car engines. These days, it is common to see schoolchildren wearing stethoscopes during Career Day. Anybody at all can buy one and wear it,” he said.
Branding and deceiving gullible people
A public health epidemiologist, Ms Anita Asamoah, added that it had become common, especially on social media platforms, to see people posing in scrubs or white coats with stethoscopes.
She said the target of some quacks was to use the “doctor’s uniform” as bait for gullible people to patronise their products and services.
“They have become a fashion trend. People even use them for photoshoots so if you do not seek help from the right places, you may end up with conditions worse than what you presented.
‘I am a public health expert and I may know about certain conditions and possible medications for treatment, but I never prescribe because that is not my duty. Some doctors are trained to assess conditions and prescribe the right treatment,” she explained.
Use of herbal medicine by peddlers
Dr Owusu-Sekyere said he did not have an issue with the faith people had in the efficacy of herbal medicine, however, it was the wrong use and possible side effects that health professionals were worried about.
“People have faith in herbal medicine, I don’t have a problem with that but if the condition is not resolving, chances are that it is not working. Just like orthodox medical practice, if you are seeing a doctor and the medicine he gives you doesn’t work, you go back for a review. The issue with patronising these peddlers is that, when people take the medication and it doesn’t work, there is usually no avenue for review. Most of the time, they don’t go to recognised herbal practitioners, they meet the peddlers on public transport and they are convinced to buy the medicine.
“Another issue is that these peddlers advertise that one medicine can cure virtually any disease which doesn’t work that way. Even in the wild, the animals know which leaves to take for what condition”, he said.
He said he knew that taking medications religiously, especially for people with chronic diseases, was difficult and so there was the tendency to buy into the idea of taking medication purported to cure the disease.
“In most instances, there is also no way to even measure the dose and so most people who patronise them end up with complications”, he added.
Abusing drugs
Dr Owusu-Sekyere, who is also The Mirror Doctor, explained that the adverse reaction of medication on the body was not only limited to herbal medication as there were several instances of people abusing orthodox medications and worsening their plight.
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“If you talk to the nephrologists, kidney failure, the chronic ones that are on the rise are because people are abusing the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication. All those medications must be given under prescription but because people have access to them, they go and take it and the result is that your kidneys will shut down.
“Most of the time, people just resort to all the other means they know and would only come to the hospital when there are complications. That’s a very poor state of health behaviour in this part of our world,” he explained.