Frances Ovia
27 July 2006
Lagos — The importance of Geographic Information Systems has been stressed by a GIS expert and Business Development Manager of Support Systems Limited Lagos, Mr. Toyin Olufemi Bawallah.
At an interactive session with journalists in Lagos recently, Mr. Bawallah called on agencies involved in Public Health Management in Nigeria to utilize the opportunities GIS offers to better manage outbreaks of Influenza viruses.
According to him an investment in GIS provides resources and technology to improve emergency communications, disease surveillance, outbreak management and emergency response, noting that GIS is already being put to use in health care management along these lines in so many parts of the world.
Mr. Bawallah maintained that Epidemiology, which is a very familiar type of geographic study in medicine, has helped tremendously in mapping the progress of diseases, famines, toxic spills and other health disasters over time. GIS offers spatial information vital to improved service delivery by epidemiologists, hospital administrators, pharmaceutical companies and health management organizations.
Mr. Bawallah then revealed that the World Health Organization (WHO), being aware of the threats the current wave of avian influenza ravaging the world poses to human beings has advised every country to be prepared, and that Nigeria cannot afford to be ill- prepared for medical emergencies.
It will be recalled that fears have been raised over time by medical experts of the possibility of the avian flu developing into a virus capable of human-to-human transmission thereby increasing its potentials for medical emergencies, if left uncontrolled.
Concluding, Mr. Bawallah enjoined Medical Researchers and other stakeholders in the country to tap into the seeming endless possibilities GIS technology offers Healthcare.
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