The Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria (IHVN), has called for an overhaul of the existing health systems to handle emerging diseases and pandemics.
Chief Executive Officer of the institute, Dr Patrick Dakum made the call on Thursday during a virtual conference on COVID-19 organised by Media Trust Limited, publishers of Daily Trust and other titles.
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He said the lack of preparedness for the pandemic resulted in an exacerbation of the already frail health system.
Dr Dakum said other ways to revive the health system include scaling up the health infrastructure to be all encompassing and not focused on only the pandemic, increasing advocacy for adequate allocation of resources in the budget to avert another health crises, and de-prioritization of other health programs and routine services.
Others are improvements in emergency preparedness strategies to handle pandemics that may arise, and increased advocacy for adequate allocation of resources in the budget to avert another health crises, among others.
He said the country has learnt many lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and could deploy same frameworks, and templates for other pandemics.
“We have used some of it in our response to HIV but strengthening those systems and making them statutory bodies will be a way forward as we look out for the next pandemic,” he said.
The IHVN boss said HIV response programmme was affected by shortage of drug supply, inability of patients to meet appointments, conversion of facilities to isolation centres as a result of the pandemic.
He said there was a need to strengthen its system in essential medicines, adding that Nigeria was highly dependent on other countries for its medicine needs.
“About 70 percent of medicines used in Nigeria and other African countries are imported, particularly from China and India. Only 10 percent of the drugs that we use in Nigeria are manufactured here. During this pandemic, the shutdown of factories affected local drug manufacturing and the need for drugs became an issue. The drugs referred to here is not only for managing COVID-19 but also for general health. Fees for clearance of goods at the ports also contributed to the challenges,” he said.
