Doctors in Lagos say Nigeria is facing a new health crisis as cases of kidney, liver and heart disease are increasingly being recorded in people under 40, conditions once associated mainly with older patients.
Prof. Faduyile, a consultant pathologist at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, said that widespread abuse of drugs such as tramadol, coupled with the unregulated sale of herbal mixtures, is fuelling the surge. “Today, we have had almost total deregulation of herbal drugs. Many of these concoctions are injurious to the liver and kidney, and unfortunately, they are easily accessible to everyone,” he said.
Clinicians warn that the shift of chronic disease to younger Nigerians threatens to overwhelm hospitals and inflate treatment costs for families already struggling. The trend comes as millions of young people turn to street-bought stimulants and alternative medicines, many of which contain unidentified chemicals.
Health experts are now calling for urgent regulation of herbal products and a nationwide campaign on drug misuse to prevent what they describe as an avoidable public-health emergency.
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