Experts have enjoined Nigeria to prioritise building resilient local health institutions towards strengthening global health security in the country.
They gave the advice during the second APIN Public Health Initiatives annual symposium in Abuja. The theme of the symposium is “ Securing our Future: Strengthening Global Health Security in Nigeria.”
The Assistant Director General of the Division of Health Emergency Intelligence and Surveillance Systems, World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said, “We truly need a paradigm shift in global health funding, building strong, resilient local institutions should be at the center of efforts for health security.”
Ihekweazu who is a past Director General of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said global health security depends on local health security, and that local health security depends on local institutions that can organise themselves to prevent, detect, and respond to health threats.
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He said global health security is ultimately dependent on a network of strong local health security institutions acting to similar protocols, mutually dependent on each other.
He emphasised that external actors and foreign donors could support countries but that the leadership, expertise and execution must rest with those with the challenges, and closest to the challenges.
“The ultimate responsibility must rest with us and how we are building and empowering our institutions to do this. Countries must put down their own money to act on these challenges.” he stated.
He also said it was important to build institutions that will respond not only to today’s crisis, but at the same time, lay the foundation for long term self-reliance and health security.
He added that strategies he deployed in NCDC such as digital data infrastructure, a communication strategy that fosters trust with the Nigerian people, and capacity building helped in positioning the NCDC for response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Ihekweazu further said global health security demands that the country learns from lessons in handling diseases like Ebola, M-pox, Lassa fever and COVID-19, among others.
The Chief Executive Officer of the APIN Public Health Initiative, Dr Prosper Okonkwo, said it is important to strengthen emergency preparedness and response so that the country is not caught unawares in the face of disease outbreaks.
He said to ensure preparedness, the country’s laboratory systems, data systems, must be strengthened, and that there should be community mobilisation and well trained health workers, among others.
He said, “So what we are saying is how we can make our health system better ready, for outbreaks and emergencies . For example during the COVID-19 pandemic, countries whose health systems were okay, COVID-19 strengthened them. For countries that were already weak, COVID-19 finished them.”
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, said the government is working towards one-health approach in integrating all programmes and tackling diseases.
He said, “Over the years, a lot of attention has been given to major public health diseases of importance. If you look at it today, within our communities, there is neglected tropical diseases, which are common among the poor. We call on the public and health practitioners to do more on this direction.
“We still face a lot of pollution and sanitation-related diseases. We still have a lot to do, and that’s why the government is talking the Sector-Wide Approach Programme to ensure that we tackle all diseases.”
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