26 November 2009
One case of swine flu (H1N1) was recently recorded in Nigeria when the Federal Ministry of Health announced that a 9-year old American girl residing in Lagos was infected with it. A statement signed by the ministry revealed that the victim showed signs of the ailment, which had symptoms of fever, sore throat, nasal congestion and nausea and was rushed to the American embassy clinic.
According to reports, the girl recovered fully after five days. The disease was diagnosed as the cause of death of a Nigerian pilgrim during the current hajj season. So far, about twenty-seven countries have been hit by the swine flu, recording 14, 109 cases and 76 deaths. The Ministry of Health in Lagos state where one case of infection was recorded has since upgraded its surveillance on the disease to ensure that no further cases are recorded.
Similarly, the Federal and the State Ministries of Health in the country have put response plans in place to tackle any future cases. This was announced by the Minister of Health, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, in a press conference held to confirm the incidence of swine flu in Lagos.
The ministry's rapid response to the American's case is understandable, but somewhat at variance with the level of concern that the government shows to the catastrophic mortality rate caused by malaria and other diseases on the Nigerian population, and their impact on the nation's economy. In a key-note address at a recent national workshop on Reproductive Health for South-South Co-operation, the Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman, remarked that Nigeria accounted for a quarter of the problem of malaria in Africa, and that malaria was responsible for thirty percent of childhood and eleven percent of maternal death in the country.
Usman also revealed that Nigeria loses one hundred and fifty billion naira annually to effects of malaria. The authorities should demonstrate commensurate concern to the infectious diseases including malaria, cholera and typhoid fever, which today account for alarming death tolls on Nigerians. The Resident Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) noted at the workshop under reference that some developing countries have made considerable progress in reducing health morbidity and mortality.
In spite of the critical challenges posed by these illnesses, it is unfortunate that funds contributed by international organizations such as the world Health Organization (WHO) do not seem to be applied to purposes they were meant. The government needs to take concrete measures to tackle and rid the country of malaria, cholera, typhoid and similar infectious diseases, which remain the greatest impediments to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs') by 2015.
Meanwhile there are still reports of an outbreak of cholera in the North-eastern part of the country which so far has claimed seventy-six lives. The affected states include Borno, Adamawa and Taraba cutting across local governments. The prevailing situation at the Balabulin cholera camp near Maiduguri is reported to be critical because medical officers posted there refuse to attend to patients because of alleged non-payment of their allowances.
If this the case, the state government should hasten to rectify the situation before it degenerates to a worse problem. We urge the workers to return to work while their grievances are looked into.
We suggest that Insecticide treated nets are made accessible and affordable to Nigerians as a means of reducing the incidence of malaria. Government should also make efforts to periodically fumigate the environment as part of a long-term strategy to curtail the spread of the disease. Health workers should also enforce sanitation laws to keep surroundings clean. The production of anti-malaria vaccine should be a priority of the Nigerian government in the fight against the disease.
To tackle cholera and typhoid, government should make clean water accessible to Nigerians because both are water-borne illnesses; otherwise no amount of vaccines produced would forestall any occurrences. Prevention is always better than cure.
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