Zaria and Kaduna are a couple of the larger cities in north central Nigeria. They are in Kaduna state. Over the past several months I have been sending some of my cancer patients to Zaria for radiation therapy. Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) in Zaria is a large academic center with radiation and also a large maxillofacial surgery department. Those are both services that are not here in Jos. Since, there are no yellow pages in Nigeria, and it is difficult to make phone contact, we chose to make an onsite visit. We also wanted to see the National Ear Care Centre in Kaduna, one of the more advanced centers in Nigeria.
Jay Maxfield , a short term missionary dentist, came along to see the maxillofacial unit. Ben Babson our audiologist (far left) and Audu, our ENT nurse (far right) came along as well. On Thursday, March 12th, we left for Zaria, a three hour drive away at the end of a very bumpy highway. Nigerians call potholes “gallops”. We did a lot of galloping to Zaria. We were able to have brief conversations with the heads of the two departments we were interested in. On the way out of town, we drove around the nearby Ahmadu Bello University campus, where there were quite a few HIV awareness billboards. We then drove an hour south to Kaduna, where we spent the night.
At the National Ear Care Centre, I had the privilege of giving the grand rounds lecture in the morning. As evidenced by the photo, the chairman, Professor Ahmed, found the talk more interesting than one of the other consultants. We were then given a tour of the facilities. The campus is basically a hospital dedicated to ear, nose, and throat care. They have two new operating rooms and a six bed ward where patients stay after their surgery. They are not yet comfortable with the concept of same day surgery, since many patients come from far distances. There is some very nice state of the art equipment there. They are still working to renovate some buildings and get some essential services going. One such service is audiology, (hearing tests).
At the Ear Care Centre, Dr. Kodiya was our primary host. I got him to show off some of his advanced equipment. At the end, we had a stimulating conversation. His frustrations are not unique. In Nigeria, there are definitely challenges to providing care to poor patients in a government funded system. Often there are gaps in essential personnel and equipment, making it difficult to provide much quality care to those who need it. 
Michael Mitchell, MD
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