By Asmau Ahmad
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reiterated its readiness to proactively confront the numerous public health challenges facing the country.
NCDC Director General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, who stated this in an interview with newsmen said the centre was adequately prepared and responsive to the threats posed by Lassa fever, measles, meningitis, cholera, COVID-19, among other public health challenges in the country.
“The NCDC as the country’s public health institute is strengthening its core health security capacity to respond to these ever-present threats.
“The centre’s key components include public health laboratory services, emergency response activities, disease surveillance and risk communications, among others,” he said.
The NCDC director general said prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the centre built on lessons from the responses to Ebola and subsequent disease outbreaks, to strengthen the country’s health security.
“The NCDC in 2016 for instance, inaugurated a National Incident Coordination Center to coordinate its disease outbreak preparedness and response activities.
“This was followed by the inauguration of similar structures at the state levels,” he said.
According to him, NCDC’s public health emergency operations centres have been repositioned for better coordination, and it has also strengthened the state governments’ roles in supporting responses to outbreaks.
He said: “We operationalised the NCDC national reference laboratory and subsequent laboratory networks in 2017, to reduce our dependence on other countries to diagnose infectious diseases.
“Nigeria, like most African countries, has recorded fewer cases and deaths from COVID-19 compared to countries outside the continent. “We must, however, increase financing from the government and private sector to increase the country’s health security capacity for potential outbreaks,” he said.
Ihekweazu said between February and October 2020, the NCDC increased the number of molecular laboratories with testing capacities from five to almost 120.
“We have successfully deployed the Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS), a digital tool for real-time disease reporting and surveillance in all states and local government areas of the country.
“COVID-19 is not the first pandemic of the 21st century and would not be the last as climate change and several other environmental factors impact on the world presently. Vectors and animal reservoirs are spreading into new areas and having increased contact with humans, put everyone at further risk,” he said.
