Dr Adeline is back, with new healthcare and education knowledge |13 October 2017

Up until about a year ago, many people had become well accustomed to the face and medical advice of renowned Dr Naomi Adeline (Ferguson) through multiple media platforms in Seychelles. Having created a pool of keen followers, it was not surprising that people began to ask whether she would be back when she stopped making public appearances. After recently being spotted at the Seychelles Hospital and following her appearance on ‘BonzourSesel’ this week, Seychelles NATION spoke to Dr Adeline to find out what she has been up to.

Q: Why have you been quiet on the media and social media?

A: It is true that I have been quiet for about a year when it comes to media appearances and the Health Education Facebook page. I had been away from Seychelles, doing a Masters in Public Health at the University of Glasgow for the past year.

Q: What did you learn from your studies that is of particular importance and relevance for Seychelles and our country's health?

A: The programme included modules in principles of public health, epidemiology, statistics, communicable diseases, health economics and healthcare management. We can always get technical with each of them, but certain key subjects did stand out for me.

Health inequities

Firstly, a lot of focus was placed on health inequities, which is now one of the major public health issues. Health inequities are the modifiable differences in health status of different groups of the population. For example, the lower the socio-economic status of a person, the higher the risk of poor health status. These disparities have significant economic costs and can easily escalate into a vicious circle.

Improving the health status of the population groups with poorer health has remained a challenge for all health systems around the world. Health organisations have to divide the already limited resources into curing illnesses, preventing diseases through educational programmes and creating an environment that promotes healthy decision-making for the individuals. As one of my mentors once said, “Now that we know smoking causes cancer, we need to find out what causes smoking”.

Cost-effectiveness of programmes

Secondly, evaluating cost-effectiveness of programmes has attracted my interest. In fact, my research in the year was the cost-effectiveness analysis of treating hepatitis C in Seychelles as compared to routine follow-up and treatment of complications.

The epidemic of hepatitis C in Seychelles is primarily linked to sharing of needles during intravenous drug use. The treatment of one patient can cost over R16,000, not including the cost of consultations and blood tests.

However, the results of this study demonstrate that treatment of hepatitis C cases in Seychelles is cost-saving, when considering the costs of complications that come when hepatitis C is not treated. In other words, it is more expensive to manage patients in future after they develop liver failure and liver cancer, than to treat their infections now. Calculating cost-effectiveness of programmes can, therefore, aid policy makers in making evidenced-based decisions.

Healthcare depends on various departments

Essentially, the public health course emphasises how the health of a community does not depend solely on the healthcare services provided. Health is often a political choice which involves the contributions of policy makers. Reducing poverty, improving education and improving housing are some of the key steps in improving the health of a nation. Therefore, all departments of the government can play a role in building a healthy community.

In Seychelles, the political will for such efforts have been established last month in a ‘Health in All’ activity, whereby the cabinet ministers signed a pledge to consider health when working on policies. This was a major step for the health of our nation.

Q: How will your studies help you to further contribute to the public's health/Ministry of Health?

A: My studies have expanded my knowledge of public health issues and how to have a bigger impact on the health of our nation through working with population groups, rather than on an individual basis. I will still stay in touch with my clinical side and balance it out with other duties.

Q: What is your current role at the Ministry of Health? Will you have any new roles?

A: I am now based at the Communicable Disease Control Unit (CDCU) under the umbrella of public health. I have not started any ‘new role’ as such yet, as I am still settling into the routines and helping out with already on-going programmes. I do look forward to getting back to my old visible, vibrant self soon, so watch this space.

Q: What are your plans for reviving health education programmes and health promotion?

A: There is a lot being done with regards to health education and health promotion programmes already. With the era of social media, information about health is easily accessible through internet, and Facebook has increased access to health workers.

Now that I am back at work, I hope to be able to play a significant role in pushing more resources into prevention and health promotion. This will require expansion of the current health education programmes, so as to reach the population groups who may not have access to the internet. A lot more can be done with regard to involvement of schools, work places and sports associations. I am excited to be back home and ready to start working on some of these ideas.

That said, the ‘Health Education Seychelles’ Facebook page has been answering private messages throughout the past year. Follow the page to receive health posts, and feel free to share the posts to your wall so that your friends may also benefit from them.