The Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital in Kano (AKTH) has successfully treated and discharged 15 patients for maggot therapy in the treatment of diabetes and other associated diseases.
The Deputy Director of Information and Pubcic Relations of the hospital, Mrs Hauwa Muhammed, said on Sunday that a Nigerian Anthologist trained on maggot therapy in Iran, Dr Mustapha Ahmed of the hospital, conducted the successful therapies.
According to her, “Maggot therapy is the process of disinfecting a chronic wound in order to promote and achieve quick healing.
“It is the standard and accepted process of treatment being practised in developed countries such as the United Kingdom and America in the treatment of patients with chronic wounds such as diabetic ulcer osteomyelitis and gangrenous foots.”
The spokesperson added that: “The Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, has become the model for maggot therapy in Nigeria, because it is the only tertiary health institution in Nigeria that has a Medical Anthologist.”
She said that the Medical Anthologist had worked in collaboration with orthopedic and plastic surgeons in the hospital to successfully conduct the proccess.
Some of the patients who passed through the process shared their experiences in an interview, saying that they were happy to have been rescued from amputation.
One of them, Aisha Abubakar, 55, a diabetic patient with gangrenous foot said: “Maggot Therapy is wonderful. It was the Almighty that saved my foot from being amputated here at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital.
Bashir Abba, another patient, said he was on admission at the orthopedic ward for no fewer than three months undergoing various treatments on diabetic ulcer.
He added that he recently went through the maggo therapy and his hopes were restored.
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