FG told to increase allocation for pandemic preparedness

Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, has said that Nigeria, like other countries, will continually be at the risk of different disease-causing germs and as such government should allocate increased funding for pandemic preparedness.

Dr Adetifa, speaking at the Professor David Olufemi Olaleye first memorial lecture and fundraising for David Olaleye Endowment Foundation, in Ibadan, on the “Controlling Epidemic Disease in Nigeria: Challenges, Lessons  and Opportunities” said already much has been spent on responding to a pandemic, but there was still the need to invest in activities to prevent the crisis from happening.

He stated that globalisation, high human movement and resilience of disease-causing germs to survive had made them a continual threat, making emergency response a key component of public health response to tackling them.

According to Dr Adetifa, inequitable access to medical countermeasures like vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic makes it imperative for Nigeria to develop its own capacity for research, innovation and development to be able to respond to disease outbreaks.

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He stated that “in 2017 when the first joint external evaluation assessment of our epidemic preparedness was done, we scored 39 per cent and in 2019 following some investment, we moved to 46 per cent and the domains we moved up were mainly those relating to response and activities that we need to do more are those on preparedness to prevent anything from happening.

“We need to ensure that all our subnational units are able to maintain or have a strong response and ensure they have state national security as part of making us stronger as a people.  Medical supply is still a challenge, sometimes we get supplies but they are not where they are needed to work. So we need to ensure the supply chain and logistics of medical and non-medical countermeasures are done efficiently and in response to need.”

Oyo State Commissioner of Health, Dr Olabode Ladipo, who represented Governor Seyi Makinde at the event, extolled the virtues and contributions of the late Olaleye to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the state.

“The task force on COVID-19 is a legacy of what he’s done. Other infectious diseases would be tackled as well. Though it was started for COVID-19 now it responds to all the medical emergencies that come,” he said.

Earlier, Chairman, Board of Trustees, David Olaleye Endowment Foundation, Professor Ademola Ajuwon said the trust fund is to train the next generation of researchers and develop their capacity for cutting-edge research to address the challenges of the current and emerging epidemic-prone infectious diseases of public health importance.