Standup9ja - President Buhari’s Health Condition
President Buhari’s Health Condition – Prof. Femi Williams
Dear Fellow countrymen
It is our constitutional right to know the health of our
President. It is a moral prerogative to be concerned about our President’s
health. The physical and mental well-being of most presidents in the world are usually
not shrouded in secrecy because details of
the health of current and past presidents in the developed world are in
the public domain. Speculations about the health of some of our leaders should
not be subject to benign or malignant analyses by medically qualified and
non-medically qualified pundits.
This letter was
written by Prof. Femi Williams. The views and opinions expressed here are those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of
360Nobs.com.
Permit me to congratulate the photographer who took the
picture of President Muhammadu Buhari that was published in The Guardian
newspaper of Friday, February 24, 2017. This photograph showed the face of the President and the back
of both of his hands. It is a universally acceptable and common exercise in
medical education to use such photos in arriving at a preliminary clinical
diagnosis albeit subject to clinical history, more laboratory tests and
clinical examination.
As a board certified physician in internal medicine and a
board certified physician in Anatomic pathology from London and Ireland, I
hereby venture to throw some light on this invaluable photograph that may allay
the fears of all the concerned citizens of this nation and in the Diaspora.
My negative findings, based on this single photograph are as
follows:
1) The President is not dehydrated;
2) The President is not clinically anaemic;
3) The President is not clinically jaundiced;
4) For his age, there are no wrinkles on his forehead indicative
of good preservation and nutrition; and
5) The national costume does not permit a superficial
assessment of whether he has lost weight or not.
My positive findings based on this single snapshot are as
follows:
1) The photograph shows some degree of clubbing of the
fingers;
2) the photo shows a small nodule on the lateral aspect of
two fingers and one of these bumps has a hyper-pigmented rim
suggestive of an infective aetiology (cause) in the recent past;
3) there is mild reduplication of skin over the knuckles (not enough for
elastosis);
4) there are multiple transverse opacities on the nails
particularly of the left hand suggestive of an infection, viral or other
infections.
The summary of these positive findings suggest that if the
clubbing of the fingers are not congenital, the President may have a disease
associated with finger clubbing, some of which are not serious and some of
which are serious and cannot be speculated upon. The most serious of these is
cancer somewhere.
One relevant question to ask is whether the President smoked
cigarettes at some point in his life. Furthermore, the multiple opacities in
the nails suggest some infective pathologies at different times as these
opacities appear layered in disposition. The little bump on the finger with a
hyper-pigmented rim is benign and suggests a previous infection or even an
insect bite. In my opinion, there may be no cause for alarm if the finger
clubbing is something he was born with. If not, there may be cause for alarm if
the underlying cause is a serious disease and there are many to consider. The significance of his past history of an
ear infection is worthy of further investigation as head and neck cancers may
masquerade in a number of ways.
It will be in the best interest of all concerned for more
information to be released as extended requests for sick leave make the
prognosis to be suspect. For those who may wish to be more enlightened on
finger clubbing, there are several references on the Internet and textbooks of
medicine.
Finally, I may be wrong as this synopsis is based on a
newspaper snapshot which is presumed to be of recent vintage. In that case,
this is not meant to mislead the public but to fill a huge void in the absence
of reliable information.
Prof. Femi. Williams. M.A., M.D., F.R C P (Lond) F R C Path
(Lond)
Founder, African Cancer Centre, Lagos
