By Asmau Ahmad
The United States Consul General to Nigeria, Mr John Bray, has called on the Federal Ministry of Defense to sustain the clinical bio-response capability for outbreak of highly communicable and infectious diseases.
Mr Bray made the call at the Ministry of Defense Health Implementation Programme (MODHIP) and Walter Reed Programme Nigeria (WRP)’s bio-preparedness training and research in Lagos.
Mr. John Bray
The training and research was organised by the United States Embassy in Nigeria and the Federal Ministry of Defense in Lagos. He said that the training was aimed at preventing and mitigating outbreak of infectious diseases in Nigeria.
“The United States Government strongly believes that healthy people make way for stronger and more stable nation and enhance international security. We will work with the Nigeria military to develop clinical and laboratory capacity, bio-surveillance and response capability as well as evaluate infectious diseases counter measures in Nigeria.
“Due to our interest in infectious diseases, 2015 marked the beginning of the Joint West Africa Research Group (JWARG) led by the U.S Military HIV Research programme. “It is to fill the need of Nigerian national and sub-regional resources for bio-response capability against the highly communicable pandemic threat,” Bray said.
The Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Ambassador Danjuma Sheni, said that the training was to strengthen the capacity of participants to detect and respond appropriately to public health emergencies.
Ambassador Sheni, who was represented by the Director, Medical Services in the Ministry, Dr Oluwatoyin Akinlade, said that the training of medical staff on prevention and management of infectious diseases was very important.
“The outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) of 2015 in Nigeria revealed the weak prevention efforts and inadequate disease detection mechanism. It shows lack of sufficient capacity to respond to public health emergencies in the affected countries. “Luckily, the imported outbreak in Nigeria was successfully managed and contained nationwide,” Sheni said.
