Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), one of the deadliest infections known to medical science, has returned. And the African continent is back to square one.
Newsbreak.ng reports that at least half of the people who contract the disease usually die – even with the best medical care.
The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola, centered in Western Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socio-economic disruption in the region.
Snapshot of Ebola
The Ebola virus can be transmitted via direct contact with bodily fluids of an individual who is sick with or has died from EVD.
The virus can enter the body stream through broken skin or mucous membranes in the eyes, nose, or mouth. This can also be spread through contact with objects contaminated by infected persons as well as direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected fruit bats, monkeys, or chimpanzees.
Just like other types of Ebola virus, people infected with the recent Sudan strain cannot spread the disease until the development of symptoms.
Symptoms may appear anywhere from two to 21 days after exposure to the virus but are typically eight to 10 days on average. Signs include fever, muscle pain, headache, fatigue, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, impaired kidney/liver function, and internal and external bleeding.
Ebola Preparedness Rundown
How is Nigeria – which is at high risk of importation — preparing for a disease which represents a major public health issue in sub-Saharan Africa?
Dr. Sheriffdeen Ewunuga, one of the healthcare workers helping to contain and eliminate the Ebola threat, spoke on public medical practitioners’ efforts.
“Firstly, in Lagos State here for example, we have an integrated disease surveillance system where epidemic-prone diseases like Ebola are being monitored. We do that daily, weekly, and monthly,” Dr. Ewunuga explained to this reporter.
“For surveillance activities, we have an epidemiology calendar which is used to monitor activities.
“And to make the system stronger at the clinic level, physicians are trained in disease surveillance. Nurses, community health practitioners, and clinic health attendants are all prepared.
“And in addition, at the clinic level, there are surveillance focal persons who are the main reporting officer at all facilities.”
Lagos State, the most populated city in Africa and one of the top five states in Nigeria with regard to the Health Preparedness Index (HPI), has a bio-bank laboratory as part of the arrangement for any disease outbreak.
It is a laboratory that compliments the efforts of the Nigerian Institute Of Medical Research (NIMR), the Central Public Health Laboratories (CPHL), and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC).
The Worry – Funding
Despite the obvious threat of emerging epidemics and pandemics, a recent analysis showed a 13% decline in Nigeria’s 2023 budget for health security, meaning the country is not fully prepared.
The total health security budget across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the proposed 2023 budget is N9,475,736,692 which is a reduction of N1, 354,900,692, from the N10,830,637,384 approved for health security in 2022. This shows a variance of 13 per cent.
Dr. Ewunuga explained that considering the 36 states of the federation will present their own budget to prepare for epidemics or to optimise the laid-down processes of disease outbreak response, the funding concern is expected to be sorted.
“Every state already has one committee or the other, and also assigned officers who are saddled with immediate response to an alert of an outbreak. It (Nigeria’s 2023 budget for health security) is just a call to re-awaken the structural organogram of responsibility flow,” Dr. Ewunuga said.
“The support from the federal government on outbreak responses is additional to what the state should have done at the outset because there are national guidelines already in case of occurrences such as Ebola.
“There are rooms to spend additional funds aside from the allocations from the national budget. And don’t forget, if the position of national and global health partners has declared an outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, the country doesn’t have options but to sit up and put up strategies to tackle such epidemic-prone conditions, which will also lead to allotting more money to tackle the re-emergence of diseases like Ebola.”
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