Lagos

Health Care

Up until the early twentieth century, the city featured among West Africa's "white man's grave," with malaria and yellow fever as main killer diseases. Sanitary conditions were among the worst in the sub-region too. Sewage treatment has remained a problem while malaria and yellow fever are under control. Present-day Lagos now boasts excellent health facilities, including numerous state-of-the-art private hospitals and maternity centers, the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital Medical School, a Dental School, an Institute for Child Health, and an orthopedic hospital at Igbobi. In 1988, 14 primary health clinics existed in the city; greater Lagos had an additional 60. The Lagos Island and Ìkejà general hospitals each had between 21,000 and 35,000 outpatients per month in 1989. Outpatients at health centers in Àpápá and Èbúté Métta stood at between 8,000 and 14,000 each month over the same period. The large numbers are as much indicative of the general population's health as the popular response to subsidized health programs in the 1980s. By far the best-known hospital is the private Èkó Hospital on Mobolaji Bank-Anthony (formerly Airport) Road in Maryland, Ìkejà.