Dr. Hendrick Ormel, Senior Adviser of the World Health Organisation Global Joint External Evaluation Secretariat, stated that there are now 125 disease outbreaks in the WHO African area.
He identified the infections as Covid-19, cholera, yellow fever, mpox, measles, wild poliovirus, and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus.
Ormel further added that 20 man-made and natural disasters, including cyclones, drought, wars, floods, and civil instability, were now occurring throughout Africa.
The WHO African region nations are
- Algeria
- Angola
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cape Verde
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Comoros
- Congo
- Cote d’Ivoire
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Kenya
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Rwanda
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- South Africa
- South Sudan
- Togo
- Uganda
- United Republic of Tanzania
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
However, Nigeria is dealing with a number of disease epidemics, including Covid-19, measles, mpox, yellow fever, Lassa fever, meningitis, cholera, diphtheria, and anthrax, among others.
Ormel told our reporter that poverty and greater interaction between animals and humans were some of the causes of the many epidemics.
“The reasons are not far-fetched; it is because of the geographical location and the interaction between wildlife, livestock and human beings. It is also because of poverty and corruption. All these are part of the reasons why we have these outbreaks of diseases,” he stated.
According to him, animals were to blame for more than 60% of infections, particularly in Nigeria.
He said:
“We cannot change the climate or the geography, but it is extremely important that we implement measures to address gaps in health security and emergencies. The implementation is very important, and this is needed in hospitals and the farm.
“For Nigeria, you need to be able to detect diseases as soon as possible, because the sooner you detect it the easier it is to respond to the outbreak.”
He claims that in order to address the deficiencies in health security highlighted by the Joint External Evaluation, the lessons learned from the Covid-19 epidemic, and other catastrophes, Nigeria must allow and empower the implementation of the National Action Plan for Health Security.
NAPHS is an indigenous multi-year planning process that is based on a One Health for all-hazards, whole-of-government approach that can hasten the implementation of the International Health Regulations basic competencies.
cc: Punch Ng
