The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) is working collaboratively with the Nigerian government to secure the country’s borders against infectious diseases and other public health threats.
The Director, Global Health Protection Programme of the organisation, Dr Farah Husain, said achieving global health security starts with achieving strong border security.
Speaking during a roundtable session with the media in Abuja, she said border health is critical in identifying and addressing risks associated with the spread of disease among travellers coming into and going out of a country.
Husain said, “It is the gateway for small outbreaks to become global pandemics. Robust border health systems require up-to-date plans and procedures and they require well-trained staff, laws, policies, and regulations are enforced and implemented. “
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How US CDC is helping to improve border health in Nigeria
She said the CDC, through its partner Pro-Health International Support, Port- Health Services partners to achieve many of these activities.
While saying that the achievements were highlighted in the recent Joint External Evaluation (JEE) score, she added that there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“And I just want to reiterate that CDC continues to remain a committed partner with the government of Nigeria with Port Health services to help the country prevent, detect and respond to these public health threats,” she said.
The Senior Emergency Management Specialist, US CDC Nigeria, Dr Muhammad Saleh, explained that border health is the area of public health that focuses on mobile populations and communities they visit before, during and after travels.
“It supports the activities of travellers along their entire journey, whether within their country or internationally to identify and address any risks associated with the spread of diseases.”
He said the US CDC prioritised border health in Nigeria because in 2019, it became a Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) partner country committed to improving progress toward the GHSA goal.
He said, “Nigeria experiences many outbreaks of infectious diseases each year and is at risk when outbreaks start in the region. The risk of disease spread into or out of Nigeria increases with the movement of people across POEs, especially porous ground crossing borders. “
He said the US CDC supports Nigeria’s Port Health Services (PHS), which is a division under the Department of Public Health at the Federal Ministry of Health in implementing strategies aimed at improving border health through an implementing partner, Pro-Health International.
The strategies include POE surveillance, capacity building for staff and screening of passengers.
He said US CDC’s broad areas of support to border health in Nigeria include leadership, management, and funding support (GHSA and CARES Act), advocacy engagement, Points Of Entry (POE) quality improvements Technical Assistance, Public Health Emergency Contingency Plans and Outbreak preparedness (Marburg, Ebola, Anthrax, etc).
Others are cross-border surveillance capacity development master training programme and public health emergency management for PHS.
He added that Nigeria has made substantial gains in improving its border health security and can serve as a model for the West African region.
The Director, Port Health Services in the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Akpan Nsibong, said, there are still challenges with cross-border surveillance.
He said some POEs are enclosed and not known officially to the government.
“We have about 60 POEs but the illegal ones can be a threat to the country,” he added.
