Medical experts have called for stronger trust and political support from the Federal Government to strengthen the National Public Health Institutes across the country in order for Nigeria to effectively and efficiently prevent epidemic outbreak.
Recently, NCDC has collaborated with Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL) to initiative strategies for epidemic control and prevention in the country.
“Moving forward amid numerous global challenges in public health, there is critical need to achieve synergy in epidemics control programs and utilise data to improve performance of such,” said Tom Frieden, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of RTSL.
Frieden, stressed that it is much easier to tear things down than build them, and that is why institutions like the NCDC should be preserved and strengthened, adding that ultimately the most important reason for epidemics preparedness is that not being prepared cost lives.
“Nigeria has made remarkable progress in her preparedness by conducting the Nigeria’s Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of International Health Regulations (IHR) in 2017 (NGJEE17)”
“On average there is one new pathogen identified somewhere in the world. We do not know when the next public health emergency will occur, however we know our best chance is to be better prepared,” he said.
“Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL) was established to support and work with countries to prevent epidemics, and Nigeria is one of our main focus countries,” he added.
Since 2017, RTSL has supported key areas of work carried out by NCDC, especially following Nigeria’s Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of International Health Regulations (IHR) in 2017.
Specifically, the organisation has supported the development and implementation of the National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS), strengthening of the national yellow fever/measles/rubella laboratory network as well as development of programme management capacity and broad institutional development.
“The biggest significance of this collaboration with NCDC is the ability to do things seamlessly while developing our capacity. We look forward to greater collaborative efforts in the future,” according to Chikwe Ihekweazu, the director general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
“The work done by Resolve in tracking countries progress across JEE areas is unique and critical. For us at NCDC, the support has helped us to identify gaps, develop realistic activities and work towards the goals to mitigate these gaps in our health security capacity,” Ihekweazu said.
The collaboration between NCDC and RTSL will expand in 2019, to include support for sub-national health security, towards strengthening national and global health security.
Frieden who was earlier quoted added that during the 2014 Ebola epidemic, Nigeria’s rapid control measures in Lagos showed that readiness saves lives and prevents spread of epidemics, protecting the country, continent, and world.
“I am encouraged by NCDC’s commitment to build on that experience and strengthen Nigeria’s ability to find, stop and prevent epidemics. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with NCDC and other key stakeholders to support Nigeria’s work to improve preparedness for the next epidemic,” he said.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
