Medical experts have traced the recurrent emergence of infectious diseases to man’s activities with wild animals.
Dr Japhet Olugbogi, a public health physician, who spoke at the 2022 Health Writers Association of Nigeria (HEWAN) Annual Symposium, said there are 1400 known human disease-causing germs, 60 percent of which are transmitted to humans through animals and depend on an animal reservoir for survival.
The theme of the symposium is ‘Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious diseases: Implications and Solutions’.
Dr Olugbogi identified these infectious diseases to include HIV, SARS, Lyme disease, Escherichia coli (E. coli), hantavirus, dengue fever, West Nile virus, Zika virus, Ebola, MERS, Chikungunya, Avian Influenza, COVID -19 and Monkeypox.
According to him, these emerging and re-emerging diseases which do not respect national boundaries also emanated from known organisms (agents) spreading to new areas and previously known organisms whose incidence of disease had gone down in the past but has now resurfaced.
Dr Olugbogi said reemerging diseases include malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, pertussis, influenza, pneumococcal disease, and gonorrhoea, noting that “there may be an ongoing outbreak of some diseases already under control in some areas at others places.”
Proffering solutions to the challenges of the emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, Dr Olugbogi called for timely disease notification, strengthening of the healthcare system, enforcement of compulsory health insurance, the building of infrastructures, improvement of health workers’ welfare and re-training of health workers and provision of adequate consumables.
He also mentioned timely vaccination, behavioural change (use of the Self Efficacy Theory), environmental protection, and nutritional and lifestyle modification (avoid ill-prepared bush meat) among others as measures to curb the menace.
Earlier in his remarks, the chairman of the occasion and president, Healthcare Providers Association of Nigeria (HCPAN), Dr Jimmy Arigbabuwo, commended HEWAN for the theme of the conference describing it as apt and timely, especially now that the world is suffering from emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
Dr Arigbabuwo said the sub-theme ‘Achieving Universal Health Coverage through Mandatory Health Insurance: Role of National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA)’ is also in line with the objective of the present administration and what all Nigerians are yearning for.
He said, “It is not likely that this planet will do without emerging and re-emerging of new diseases or even issues that will deal with immunity or parasite. They come in because of the existence of the human population – we deal with them, we play with them.
“What is key is that we are even more troubled now by non-infectious diseases problems, non-contagious problems including hypertension, high blood pressure and cancers; they even a threat to this region more than ever before.”
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