Parasitologist tasks health workers on outbreaks

Parasitologist tasks health workers on disease outbreaks
By Lydia Ngwakwe
Diseases
Lagos, Feb. 12, 2019 (NAN) A Consultant Medical Parasitologist, Prof. Wellington Oyibo, on Tuesday urged medical facilities across the country to educate their health workers on how to be responsive to disease outbreaks.
Oyibo of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, University of Lagos, Idi-Araba, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
According to him, being responsive is to see that you get a system to work and when it works it is powered by people and resources.
Oyibo’s appeal came on the heels of a bill signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, establishing the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
The agency was established in 2011, but had no legislative backing to carry out its core mandate.
“Establishing a centre for disease control means it should be a centre that is responsive because most of the diseases controls we are referring to are likely epidemic diseases.
“Its core mandate which is to detect, investigate, prevent and control diseases must be met.
“However, it is not only the centre that should be doing what has to be done; the health workers also have to be responsive.
“That responsiveness is very important; there is what we call reporting, when there are outbreaks, what should a facility do? They must monitor different diseases and see what is going on.
“They must also do a weekly summary of their findings.
“For instance, if many people reported this week with diarrhoea, as a health worker, what you need to do is to raise a flag, quickly know what to do before seeing the state epidemic unit.
“After this is done, the facility then sets in place strategies to prevent people from getting in contact with the diseases while the state epidemic unit goes round to look at other threats.
“Facilities must see to it that a health worker is introduced and exposed to some of this tips for effective service delivery
“Once this knowledge is passed on to them, it will also in a way reduce the spread of disease outbreaks,’’ Oyibo said.
He also advised the Federal Government to ensure that the NCDC was well equipped with the right resources, including equipment, to be able to confirm certain things.
Besides, he called for proper funding for the centre to carry out its responsibilities effectively. (NAN)
LED/MST
Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola