Outbreak of four deadly diseases imminent, experts warn

With over 50 deaths recorded from the current outbreak of Lassa fever in three weeks, it would not be out of place to say that the virulent disease has brought the nation to its knees.

In spite of government’s best efforts at all levels to contain it, the disease continues to spread across the 36 states of the federation.

While health officials were still trying to figure out the best way to stamp out the disease, just like they did to the Ebola Virus Disease, the Director, National Centre of Diseases Control, Abuja, Prof. Abdulsalam Nasidi, announced that a new strain of meningitis, had killed a significant number of people in the country.

Nasidi expressed fear that about 50 per cent of all suspected cases of Lassa fever in the country could really be the symptoms of a new virus and not Lassa fever.

He said, “We are worried that we are dealing with another virus. The cases we are seeing are different from the symptoms of Lassa fever”.

From all indications, Nasidi may be right as an international disease surveillance agency, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders, alerted the developing countries, including Nigeria, to a possible outbreak of four viral diseases in 2016.

Speaking at the on-going World Health Organisation meeting in Geneva on Monday, the MSF warned health officials to prepare to battle dengue fever, Zika, Ebola and Kala Azar virus outbreaks before the end of the year.

The international aid organisation noted that these viruses had the potential to cause epidemics if proper steps were not taken to prevent and adequately respond to outbreaks, especially in countries with weak health systems and less developed infrastructure like Nigeria.

MSF’s operational health advisor, Dr. Monica Rull , added that African governments should expect deadly outbreaks of cholera, malaria, measles and meningitis as they might pose a bigger threat to people’s health in the year ahead.

Rull said, “The threat posed by emerging and re-emerging virus and parasite-spread diseases – such as dengue fever, Zika, Ebola and Kala Azar – needs to be faced. We know that thousands of lives will be at risk with the outbreaks. But we also know that the means to prevent these deaths exist.

“Cholera, malaria, measles and meningitis epidemics will also take place this year in a dimension that we have never seen before. They will incapacitate and kill many if nothing is done.”

She said that the organisation was particularly worried that strategies used to tackle epidemics in African countries were inadequate and uncoordinated.

“ Many developing countries afflicted with natural disasters, conflicts and insurgency have weakened fragile health systems, thus creating the perfect environment for easily preventable outbreaks of diseases.

“If we don’t make significant changes, we will be doomed to repeat past mistakes. We must combat these viruses and infections to save lives,” Rull stated.

As predicted by the global body, more than 500 babies have died of the Zika virus in Brazil in the last three weeks.

The deadly virus, which is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a popular parasite in Africa and South America, is killing pregnant women and their babies like flies in Brazil.

Just last week, the Federal Government raised the alarm over the outbreak of a new strain of meningitis in the country. It stated that the disease had claimed many lives in Nigeria in the last few months.

To prevent these outbreaks in Nigeria, experts have called on government to institute a disease monitoring system in all its health facilities, especially at the primary health care level.

Chief Virologist, Dr. Olumide Adunbarin, stated that, henceforth, government must compel health authorities to establish every cause of suspicious deaths in their health facilities.

Adunbarin said, “Gone are the days when patients died and no one could establish the cause of the death. Imagine that many people had died of Lassa fever in various states before it was reported to the Federal Government.

“If the late Adadevoh had not suspected that Patrick Sawyer had Ebola, he would have spread the disease to many Nigerians. If a patient, whose medical history you do not know, is brought to your hospital, establish the cause of his or her death and trace such a contact.”

In his submission earlier, Nasidi said it was high time that government at all levels upgraded the number of vaccines available in its national routine immunisation scheme for children in order to accommodate new ones.

He said, “Nigeria was able to deal with meningitis ‘A’ because it immunised children against it. However, we are battling with the ‘C’ type now. To tackle it, I call on all state governors, especially those of the north-west to start warming up to introduce more vaccines .”