By Iyema David
Stakeholder in the health sector have called on the Federal Government to strengthen the country’s healthcare delivery system at the point of entry to maintain the capacity for early detection and response to public health threats.
They made the call in Abuja, at a one day Stakeholders’ review meeting on the Quarantine Act (Repeal &Re-enactment) Bill 2022. The meeting was organized by the Lifeline Centre for Medical and Health Rights Advocacy, with the support of Resolve to Save Lives.
The National Assembly (NASS) seeks to repeal the 96-year-old Quarantine Act, the new Bill seeks to help Nigeria deal with any impending outbreak of infectious and contagious diseases in the future.
The National Health Emergency Bill has scaled second reading at the Senate.
The bill which seeks to repeal the 96-year-old Quarantine Act, was considered after a brief deliberation.
Introduced in May 2020, the legislation seeks to help Nigeria deal with any impending outbreak of infectious and contagious diseases in the future.
The President of Lifeline Centre for Medical and Health Rights Advocacy, Prof. Uwakwe Abugu, said that if the Quarantine Bill was signed into law, it would establish a legal and administrative framework for handling outbreaks of infectious and contagious diseases that portend major threats to public health safety within Nigeria, or are likely to be transmitted into Nigeria or outside Nigerian borders.
“The Bill in repealing the archaic Quarantine Act of 1926 set up the establishment of the Port Health Services (PHS), It’s a very text piece of legislature is just about eight sections and that’s what charged the PHS, to be in charge of all the health regulations at the point of entry of the country.
“Anybody coming into Nigeria, any planes, ships, coming or going out of Nigeria, it’s the PHS that is in charge of ensuring that no infectious disease is transmitted or imported into Nigeria or exposed.
“This very important services by the PHS is only established by the port health regulation made under the quarantine act. We have had Ebola before, we are now having COVID-19, and we still expect more pandemic, we are not praying for it but it’s the reality of the day,” he explained.
Abugu said that the bill would see to the eventual repeal of the obsolete Quarantine Act enacted in 1926, and help Nigeria deal with any impending outbreak of infectious and contagious diseases in the future.
He added that the bill would benefit Nigeria more as it would create a regulatory agency, with proper funding, with proper departments with more personnel and training.
Speaking on how the act will help the country in detection of epidemics, Barrister Amira Abubakar, Assistant legal adviser, Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control (NCDC), said that the quarantine bill was repealing the quarantine act and this particular bill had identified all the gaps from the quarantine act, especially emerging diseases like COVID-19.
Abubakar noted that the new bill would give an opportunity to rapidly address diseases such as COVID-19 and by rapid response it entails detection at the points of entry even before Nigerians were exposed to such diseases and that way, the exposure to such diseases would be mitigated.
The Coordinator, African Health Budget Network (AHBN), Dr Aminu Magashi, aligned with the importance of PHS in addressing infectious disease spread at the borders cannot be underscored.
Magashi, who was represented by Mrs Maimuna Abdullahi, AHBN’s Health Economist, Monitoring, and Evaluation Specialist, said that AHBN recently, convened a two- days advocacy retreat with stakeholders as a followup to the national COVID-19 summit and it had the director of port health service in attendance.
He added that the retreat generated number of advocacy priorities for the PHS including advocacy to strengthen the PHS workforce with permanent and qualified staff and also advocacy to mobilize support at national level for PHS.
“We are committed to supporting PHS on its activities , including on the review of the it’s institutional legal framework,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dr Emmanuel Agogo, the Nigeria Country Representative of Resolve to Save Lives, said that the National Assembly was actually keen on seeing this process through.
It would be recall that the bill is considered by many Nigerians as the Senate version of the controversial Control of Infectious Disease Bill which was introduced in the House of Representatives in 2021.
The House bill had triggered outrage among Nigerians majorly because of the provisions of the bill and the speedy consideration and passage by members of the House.
