Muhimbili Mloganzila National Hospital has launched a new service to place a special balloon in the stomach for overweight people (intragastic balloon) which will help to reduce the space in the stomach and cause a person to eat less which will lead to weight loss.
Launching the service today, the Executive Director Muhimbili National Hospital Prof. Mohamed Janabi has said, Mloganzila is the first public hospital in Tanzania to provide this service, so he has congratulated the experts for making this happen” said Prof. Mr
“Until today we have done it for 3 people and there are more than 12 people who need this service, those who need to be given this service are those who are overweight which is from 100 kg.
About the cost of the service, Prof. Janabi has clarified that for Mloganzila it costs TZS 3.5 Mil to TZS 4 Mil while abroad it is more than TZS 15 Mil.
On his part, the Surgeon, Dr. Eric Muhumba has said that the balloon placement service takes 20 minutes and is done using an Endoscopy machine, so it does not involve any type of surgery.
Dr. Eric added that once the balloon is placed in the stomach, it stays for a period of six to eight months and then it is released and after that the person will have developed a culture of eating less, so he will have lost enough weight.
Also Dr. Eric has advised the community to exercise and eat food based on the advice of nutritionists in order to be healthy and avoid gaining excess weight which causes various diseases including diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
And, a member of the Medical Tourism Committee (Medical Tourism) Mr. AbdulMarik Mollel has congratulated MNH-Mloganzila for launching the service which will open doors for people from neighboring countries to follow it because it is safe and its costs are cheap, thus helping to promote Tanzania.
