Medical Practitioner appeals to govts to strengthen epidemics preparedness

A Medical Practitioner, Dr Tunji Akintade, has appealed to the Federal and State Governments to strengthen biobank, epidemiological system and response to epidemics in the country.

Akintade, a former Chairman of the Association of Nigeria Private Medical Practitioners (ANPMP), made the appeal in an interview with our correspondent on Wednesday in Lagos.

He noted that emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats indicate the urgency of developing mechanisms for rapid response to disease outbreaks, building capacity for pandemic surveillance and strengthening health systems.

According to him, there has been predictions of future pandemic which will come at an even higher price than COVID-19, noting that the nation should be prepared.

Our correspondent reports that Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and Nigeria reported its index case of COVID-19 on Feb. 27, 2020.

To respond to the pandemic, COVID-19 isolation and testing centres were set up across the country in movable structures, temporary extension at health facilities and expansion of wards at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba, Lagos.

At present, isolation centres in health facilities have been converted back to medical wards or to other uses.

COVID-19 constitutes an increasing public health concern and due to the non-availability of a vaccine against the disease at the inception of pandemic, non-pharmaceutical interventions were the major preventive and control measures.

At the peak of the first and second wave of COVID-19, the Lagos State Government had many public and private isolation centres.

Our correspondent reports that many were makeshift centres.

They have been decontaminated in readiness for future use and pulled down due to decline in the number of positive cases.

However, the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba, has been undergoing expansion with plans to make it an Infectious Disease Research Centre.

Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, had earlier said that the centre would enable Nigerian researchers develop vaccines in response to future epidemic, as well as making medical provisions readily available for the citizens.

So far, Nigeria has witnessed six waves of COVID-19 since inception of the pandemic, exerting a pressure on health facilities and the healthcare workers nationwide.

Akintade said: “We need to have a better capacity to fight such threats, not spending money only after the crisis arrives,” he said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the next pandemic is most likely to be caused by influenza, saying that the disease continues to be a priority public health threat globally.

Akintade said that pandemic-like threats would be recurrent, appealing to the governments, especially states to take them seriously as a national security threat.

He said that many states are battling various outbreaks, lamenting that most had not develop capacity to manage the outbreaks without relying on the Federal Government for assistance in responding to the outbreaks.

“We need to enhance research into understanding why large outbreaks are becoming more common in communities.

“The country cannot afford another socio-economic disruption similar to what we experienced during COVID-19.

“It’s important that we engage the whole of society for effective pandemic preparedness and response,” he advised.

Data from WHO shows that as at April 26, 2023; 764,474,387 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6,915,286 deaths, have been reported globally.

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), as at May 2, 2023, Nigeria has 266,675 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3,155 recorded deaths.