Health
Nigeria must strengthen health systems before next Ebola outbreak — Academy
By Adekunle Sulaimon
The Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy has called for proactive and multidisciplinary preparedness against Ebola and other emerging infectious diseases, warning that Nigeria must not wait for an outbreak before strengthening its health systems.
The call was made on Thursday during an Emergency Epidemic Preparedness Webinar organised by the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy and moderated by its Director of Programmes, Dr Lolu Ojo.
The webinar, themed “Building a Prepared, Coordinated and Resilient Healthcare Workforce,” brought together professionals from medicine, pharmacy, nursing, medical laboratory science, physiotherapy and other health disciplines.
In his welcome address, President of the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy, Prof. Lere Baale, said epidemic preparedness must be treated as a health-system responsibility rather than the duty of a single profession.
Baale said, “An outbreak does not recognise professional boundaries. Neither should preparedness.”
He said the effectiveness of Nigeria’s response would depend on the ability of healthcare professionals to work together, noting that “the strength of our response is therefore determined not merely by the excellence of individual professions, but by the quality of our collaboration.”
According to him, preparedness must begin before the first suspected case is detected, with healthcare workers trained in surveillance, case recognition, infection prevention and control, referral pathways and emergency protocols.
“Preparedness is not a certificate that a country earns permanently. It is a capability that must be continuously strengthened, tested and renewed,” Baale said.
He said Nigeria’s preparedness should follow a continuous cycle of “anticipate, prevent, detect, respond, recover, learn and improve,” adding that every outbreak should leave the healthcare system stronger than it found it.
Also speaking, Chairman of the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy’s Ebola Task Group, Prof. Fola Tayo, called for continuous preparedness, prevention and decisive response to Ebola and other emerging infectious diseases.
He stressed the need for healthcare professionals and institutions to prepare for outbreaks before they occur.
He said preparedness should not be treated as a one-time exercise, but as a continuous process that must evolve alongside changes in people, technology, healthcare practices and disease patterns.
“Preparedness must be continuous. It must be tested, evaluated and improved regularly. People change, practices evolve and technology advances,” Tayo said.
He said preparedness should follow a cycle of “anticipation, prevention, detection, response, recovery, learning and improvement.”
He asked frontline professionals to consider whether they were sufficiently prepared to recognise and respond to suspected cases.
“How prepared are we? Do frontline professionals know what to do when they encounter a suspected case? Are our systems, procedures and communication channels ready?” he queried.
“Our goal must be to ensure that when an outbreak occurs, healthcare professionals are not learning what to do for the first time. They should already be trained, prepared and able to respond effectively,” he said.
Speaking from the physician’s perspective, consultant physician Dr Adefolarin Opawoye said Nigeria could not rely on individual healthcare workers sacrificing themselves during outbreaks as happened during the 2014 Ebola crisis.
Opawoye identified laboratory capacity as one of the major challenges facing Nigeria’s epidemic preparedness, explaining that Ebola cannot be diagnosed solely by clinical signs and symptoms.
“Unfortunately for Ebola, there is no pathognomonic clinical sign. It’s not a clinical diagnosis. It’s not something you can look at the patient and say, ‘You need to get to the lab.’ You are totally dependent on the lab,” he said.
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