By; MATTHEW UKACHUNWA, Lagos
Health Writers Association of Nigeria (HEWAN) has been commended for its activism for the achievement of a sustainable and people-oriented health policy in Nigeria.
HEWAN received the commendations at its 12th Annual Symposium which took place in Lagos on Tuesday December 20, 2022.
Chairman of the occasion, Dr. Jimmy Arigbabuwo who is the National President, Healthcare Providers Association of Nigeria (HCPAN), described the HEWAN symposium and its themes, “Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases: Implications and Solutions,” and the sub-theme, “Achieving Universal Health Coverage Through Mandatory Health Insurance: Role of NHIA,” as a national call which has to be answered.
He said that HEWAN plays pivotal role in the development of Nigeria’s health system, and described the Association as a partner.
Commenting on the subject of the symposium, Arigbabuwo said, “I can assure you, it’s not likely that the planet will do without emerging and re-emerging of new diseases, pandemics viral or bacterial, fungal or even issues that will deal with immunity or parasite.”
The leader of healthcare providers pointed out that those diseases come in because of the existence of human population, stressing: “We deal with them, we play with them.”
He declared that the likes of animals and plants are created for man’s existence, and he wared that Novel Corona Virus disease (COVID-19) has gone does not mean another one will not come.
“So, be it bacteria or virus or an animal, we don’t know yet, something will happen,” Arigbabuwo predicted.
He explained that what is key is that humans are at the present time being troubled by the problems of non-infectious diseases, including hypertension, cancers, among others.
“They surface and the ages affected are not the usual we used to know. We now have people in their 20s and 30s suffering strokes. We have cancer diseases affecting the under-aged as well as adults and elderly people. These are quite common now,” he emphasized while commending HEWAN for choosing the topics for discussion.
Chairman, Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos State Council, Comrade Adeleye Ajayi, said, “The theme of the symposium is very very germane. And I also want to commend the Association for the effort you put in during the outbreak of COVID-19 (Novel Corona Virus disease).”
The NUJ leader enjoined health sector stakeholders to always organize regular capacity building events for the health beat reporters in order to sharpen their professional skills.
Dr. Femi Ayoola who represented the Medical Director of Federal Medical Centre, Ebute Metta, Lagos said that Health Writers Association of Nigeria contributing to nation-building.
Dr. Saliu Oseni who represented Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) pointed out that HEWAN has a very important role to play in the success of health sector.
He called on governments of Nigeria to understand the role of the private sector in achieving Universal Health Coverage in the country.
Dr. Japhet Olugbogi, Medical Officer of Health at Ifelodun Local Council Development Area (LCDA), delivered talk on the main theme of the symposium.
Olugbogi identified some of the infectious diseases to include HIV, SARS, Lyme disease, Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli), hantavirus, dengue fever, West Nile virus Zika virus, Ebola, MERS, Chikungunya, Flu Viruses, H1N1 Influenza Virus (Swine Flu), Avian Influenza (Bird Flu), Covid19 and Monkeypox.
He said the major cause of the problem remains man’s contact with wild animals and bird.
Other causes, according to him, include known organisms (agents) that have spread to new areas or countries; previously unknown infectious organisms; previously known organisms whose role in causing diseases have been missed and re-emergence of infectious organisms whose incidence of disease had gone down in the past but has now re-surfaced (re-emerging infectious diseases).
The medical specialist defined Emerging Infectious Diseases as “infections that have recently appeared within a pop or those whose incidence or geographic location/range is increasing rapidly or threatens to increase in the near future.
“Those diseases whose incidence in humans have increased in the past two decades or threatened to increase, outbreaks of diseases which were not known before (NIA &ID), persistence of infectious diseases that cannot be controlled.”
He said these diseases do not respect national boundaries and are threat to health workers and populations.
Dr. Olugbogi also defined Re-emerging Infectious Diseases as “Diseases that surface after they have been controlled. Reemergence may be caused by: disruption of public health measures for diseases that were once under control, appearance of new strains of known disease-causing organisms; human behavior e.g antibiotics resistance which has allowed a return of diseases that once were treatable and controllable.”
He said “Reemerging diseases include malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, pertussis, influenza, pneumococcal disease, and gonorrhea,” noting that “there may be an ongoing outbreak of some diseases already under control in some areas at others places.”
The public health expert said that research has shown that there are 1,400 known human pathogens, 60 per cent of which are transmitted to humans through animals and depend on an animal reservoir for survival.
An additional 5–10 per cent, according to him, is environmentally transmitted, and the remainder is through human-to-human transmission the proportion of zoonotic infections among emerging infection diseases (EID) is even higher (73 per cent), indicating that the human-animal route is a big risk for occurrence
He said, “Most of the established human pathogens started from animals,” adding that “emerging infectious disease events are dominated by zoonoses (60.3% of EIDs): the majority of these (71.8%) originate in wildlife,”
Giving example, Ifelodun LCDA healthcare chief stated that “severe acute respiratory virus and Ebola virus are increasing significantly over time.”
He noted that the findings carried out by Jones et al. found that 54.3 per cent of EID bouts are caused by bacteria/rickettsia. “They confirmed that EID origins are mainly connected with socio-economic, environmental, and ecological factors which are emerging disease hotspots,” he highlighted.
The medical expert said “Pathogens can re-emerge with new characteristics, such as multidrug resistance, or in different places, such as Ebola virus in West Africa in 2013, monkeypox in Europe and America in 2022, and Zika virus in Brazil in 2015, to cause new epidemics
“The 1918 pandemic of influenza virus A/H1N1 and the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are the most pronounced in human history.”
Proffering solutions to the challenges of the emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, Dr. Olugbogi called for timely disease notification, strengthening of the healthcare system, enforcement of compulsory health insurance, the building of infrastructures, improvement of health workers’ welfare and re-training of health workers and provision of adequate consumables.
Other suggestions he proffered require health education by using the trans-theoretical model of change developed by Prochaska and DiClemente of Precontemplation, Contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance and relapse.
He also mentioned timely vaccination, behavioural change (use the Self Efficacy Theory), environmental protection, and nutritional and lifestyle modification (avoid ill-prepared bushmeat) among others as measures to curb the menace.
According to him “I can assure you of one thing, it is not likely that this planet will do without emerging and re-emerging of new diseases, pandemics being viral or bacteria, fungal or even issues that will deal with immunity or parasite. They come in because of the existence of the human population – we deal with them, we play with them.
“The likes of the animals and plants are created for man’s existence, that COVID-19 has gone does not mean another one will not come so be it bacteria or virus or an animal we don’t know yet, something will happen!
“What is key is that we are even more troubled now by non-infectious diseases problems, non-contagious problems including hypertension, high blood pressure, cancers and name them, they even a threat to this region more than ever before; even the time they surface and the ages affected are not the usual we used to know.
“We now have people in their 20s or 30s suffering strokes; we have cancer diseases affecting the under-age as well as adult and elderly people….These are quite common now and I want to commend HEWAN for choosing this theme to address the issue of infectious diseases today.”
