UNILORIN Don gets N5m research grant on heart burn disease

UNILORIN Don gets N5m research grant-acadaextra

UNILORIN Don gets N5m research grant on heart burn disease

A University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital Associate Professor of Medicine (UITH), Dr. Abdullahi Olokoba, has received the Astra Zeneca Research Grant of about N5million.

The grant will help to advance research in the study of Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD, also known as heart burn).

According to Olokoba who told newsmen on Tuesday in Ilorin that the grant would help to advance research in the study of Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), also known as heart burn.

He said the research will be conducted with a team of scholars across departments of medicine from Nigerian University Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres.

The scientist won the grant following the submission of a proposal entitled “Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease in Nigeria: A Population-Based Study”.

Olokoba added that the research is necessary because the prevalence of GERD in Africa is not clearly known.

He explained that the continent was conspicuously missing in the global map of GERD, which was known to affect between 10 and 20 per cent of the population in western countries.

Olokoba, also the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Kwara State General Hospital, Ilorin, described GERD as the clinical condition that develops when gastric contents find their way into the oesophagus.

“This causes troublesome symptoms such as heartburn and regurgitation or complications such as Barrett’s oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma that can require surgical intervention,” he said.

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