A professor at the department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ilorin, Nusirat Elelu, has said that what an individual eats reflects profoundly in the quality of his/her life.
Professor Elelu stated this while delivering the university’s 283rd inaugural lecture, titled, “The Public Health Veterinarian through Ticks, Snails and Community Service”.
She explained that research has confirmed that animal diseases often affect human beings, pointing out that more than 70 per cent of the emerging and re-emerging diseases that have affected humans over the past two decades came from animals.
Professor Elelu advised Nigerians to give greater consideration to the quality of meat they consume to safeguard their health, saying that safeguarding the health of the population must be the watchword of all.
The inaugural lecturer, who is a former Head of the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said that every effort must be made to prevent disease in animals to ensure that the health of human beings is not negatively impacted by what they consume from animals.
As a result of the relationship between human and animal health, Professor Elelu said that health professionals must adopt multi-disciplinary health strategies to ensure effective and sustainable improvement in service delivery.
She explained that the suggestion is even more plausible among resource-poor countries as she noted that the multidisciplinary approach such as exemplified by one health strategy would serve the intended purpose.
The inaugural lecturer also said that public health, unlike other fields of medicine, is not about doctors treating individual patients but about an entire population.
Professor Elelu, who is also the Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, recalled that the success recorded in the control of the avian influenza epidemics in Nigeria between 2006 and 2010 was largely due to the coordinated efforts of the human and veterinary medicine professionals.
She explained that some diseases such as Zoonotic TB cannot be checked by the human health sector alone, saying that veterinarians and other stakeholders in the public health sector must work together by carrying out joint nomadic vaccination, targeting both their livestock and children.
Professor Elelu, who has won several awards and recognitions, also canvassed integrated human and animal health surveillance through a sustainable programme involving veterinary and medical experts both nationally and internationally for a successful disease control programme.
For food safety and to address the role of animals in maintaining and transmitting the disease and in view of the absence of effective preventive vaccinations or chemotherapy, Professor Elelu called for strengthened joint human and animal health surveillance at the hospitals and meat inspection in the abattoirs.
Professor Elelu, who is also the first female Professor of Veterinary Medicine from Kwara state, also called on stakeholders in animal husbandry to ensure that farmers are duly educated on good farm management practices such as biosecurity, vector control, animal vaccination, and waste management. She explained that this would reduce animal disease burden and translate to improved food security, poverty reduction as well as prevent human zoonotic disease infection.
The inaugural lecturer also called for an improved health information and communication, saying that it is important to strengthen and sustain prompt health communication between human health and animal health sectors in a joint public health strategy, as the timely sharing of information will allow prompt identification of geographical areas or patient groups with a high risk of zoonotic disease exposure. This, according to her, will facilitate a targeted response for prevention and control.
Professor Elelu also called for massive awareness campaigns on animal diseases, adding that awareness campaigns, fortified with content-specific messages to target audiences, especially amongst those most at risk of contracting infections, would be of great assistance in reducing the spread of the diseases.
She noted that public enlightenment campaigns against the consumption of pasteurised dairy products should be intensified. This, she said, should be complemented with continuous engagement of the people with individually tailored messages. She said that would also be more beneficial.
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