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The Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, has
directed heads of federal government tertiary hospitals in the country to
prepare, equip and be proactive in responding to outbreak of diseases in
Nigeria.
Speaking during a meeting with them in Abuja,
Adewole urged the federal hospitals to come up with strategies to support the
primary and secondary health care centres in the states, while also charging
them to adopt secondary and primary health facilities, supervise them and make
sure they work well.
He recalled that the country has been dealing with
series of outbreaks over the last one year, including Lassa Fever, cholera,
measles and now meningitis, advising the public to notify the Federal Ministry
of Health on any epidemic outbreak to enable it deploy response team
immediately to checkmate the spread of the diseases.
“The outbreak of meningitis in Zamfara actually
started late November 2016, but we did not know till February, which was
unfortunate.
“If we got to know early, we would have deployed
the vaccines available to us, create awareness and take charge of the situation
early enough. But since we did not know, we lost valuable time to respond to
the outbreak,” he lamented.
The minister said that during emergency, medical
personnel in the federal hospitals must support the state, primary and general
hospitals, adding: “We cannot pretend that what is happening outside our
tertiary health centres do not concern us.
“This is one reason why we must interact with
primary and secondary health facilities in the state. Otherwise, we would spend
valuable time treating diarrhea and vomiting, instead of looking after the
complex cases that we ought to do.”
National Coordinator, Nigeria Centre for Diseases
Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said the Centre had already dispatched
response team and presently working with the governments in the affected areas
of Sokoto and Zamfara, saying the team is working on early detection and
treatment.
Ihekweazu urged the chief executives of the
tertiary hospitals to work closely with the leadership of the state governments
in managing the outbreak, noting that the agency was working hard to prevent
the outbreak of cholera, as the raining season has begun in some parts of the
country.
