The World Bank on Wednesday announced the donation of $90 million to Nigeria in form of a grant to finance a five-year Regional Disease Surveillance Enhancement (REDISSE) to address gaps in disease prevention and outbreak response.
The Procurement Specialist, World Bank, Daniel Kajang, disclosed this in Abuja, during the formal handover of vehicles to states’ REDISSE Project, a project initiated by the World Bank to cover all countries in the ECOWAS sub-region as a consequence of the 2014-2015 Ebola crisis.
Kajang said the Ebola outbreak reinforced the importance of surveillance in the face of “very weak health system”. He expressed concern that diseases sometimes go undetected for months but said the programme would strengthen disease prevention, detection and address systematic weakness within the animal and human health systems.
According to him, successful implementation would minimise the health and economic consequences of major disease outbreak and enable Nigeria to prepare for any eventuality.
“If we are not prepared, even a little disease like diarrhoea can derail the health sector. It’s also a shame that disease can occur for six months without anybody knowing what it is.
“There was a year in this country, there was cholera in one of the northern states for six months without anybody detecting it, but with this project, epidemics will not overpower the country,” he said.
He further informed that the project which was launched on the 27th April 2018 and under the supervision of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) would end in 2023, but explained it could be extended with more financing if Nigeria performs well.
A total of 18 vehicles, 75 motorcycles and 175 tricycles were deployed for all states’ Animal Health Disease Surveillance and Response activities, including the FCT.
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The permanent secretary, ministry of agriculture and rural development, Mohammed Tambuwal, said the vehicles would be used prudently for disease intelligence gathering, ambulatory services, sample transportation, simulation and coordination of disease containment activities and response to disease outbreaks in hard to reach areas across the country.
While harping on the importance of surveillance, Tambuwal warned that the delay in response to disease often leads to an escalation of the disease resulting in heavy mortalities and decrease in Productivity of the affected population.
“Today, with the deployment of these containment materials, I am convinced that the states are now more prepared to detect and respond promptly to disease outbreaks,” he said.
The director-general, NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, said the deployment of the vehicles was only the beginning of much more hard work to come. He expressed hope that the resources would be well utilised.
