Health experts have warned that community spread of the coronavirus infection may be dangerous for the country, saying federal and state governments, including individuals should put in more efforts to contain the virus.
A medical practitioner, Dr. Kunle Megbuwawon, said community spread becomes an issue when someone that has the virus fails to isolate and begins to spread with people in the community beginning from his family.
Dr. Megbuwawon, a Public Health and Family Medicine specialist at Eko Hospital, said in this case, there is possibility of many people within the community having the virus, thereby compounding the problem for the government in terms of containing it.
He warned of impending danger of relaxation of the lockdown and refusal to observe the stay-at-home social distancing protocol, saying such could be too grave to handle.
He said: “Community spread is about somebody that is already infected and most likely already showing symptoms who is within the community and he is not practicing isolation and social distancing and covering his mouth.
“For everytime he speaks, he coughs, he sneezes, he is spreading out the diseases. So everybody that is around him, close enough, less than two metres from him and that’s also not covered, not isolating, not covering his nose and mouth and touching surfaces can easily get it.
“So, you can imagine someone that got it and comes to his house, he hugs his family, he eats on the same table, he sleeps on the same bed, he is very close to his family. The first points of contact are usually his family members. He goes to the office, he touches the door knob, he touches different people, he speaks with them at close range, so easily he would spread it.
“Based on that, he spreads to one person, two persons and many people. Those people also carry the virus. Initially they are asymptomatic. Later on, the virus goes in them and becomes a bit high. They too become a bit symptomatic.
“They do the same thing speaking with people at close range, they are sneezing and coughing and people around them are also not covered, not practising hand washing and all that.
“So, it spreads to one person and that person spreads to series of people. Before you know it, within a short time, the entire community can come down with the disease. So it is a geometric spread, it’s not one to one, it’s one to 20, one to 50.
“So, one person can give it to a large number of people in his close contact, in his house, in his office, people around the streets, people in the bus that he would go home with. So before you know, it has spread within the community. So, it can spread like wildfire.”
Megbuwawon advised Nigerians to continue to observe the precautionary procedures and regulations laid down by the health authorities, including staying at home, practising of regular hand washing and maintaining social distance, among others.
Also speaking, a former President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Pharm. Olumide Akintayo, called for more engagement of the stakeholders in the community to enlighten the people on the danger of the community spread.
He noted that already people are flouting the social distancing and stay-at-home directives due largely to the poverty in the land.
He said over 70 percent of people who earn a living on a daily hustle are already frustrated with the stay-at-home order.
Pharm. Akintayo said the COVID-19 pandemic should serve as a lesson to the government to take the issue of drug security and medicine availability seriously.
“We need to develop our pharmaceutical sector. Competency and capacity need to be reformed in the health system.
“We must also encourage the local training of healthcare professionals at the graduate and postgraduate level,”Akintayo added.
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