Nigerians have been warned against panicking following the first confirmed case of Ebola virus, with experts saying more efforts should be geared towards educating the people on preventive measures.
Addressing journalists on the sidelines of the 11th National Conference on Environment and Health organised by LivingScience Foundation, Ile-Ife, and hosted by Osun State University, Osogbo, on Wednesday, the President of the foundation, Prof. Joshua Ojo, said creating panic over the discovery of Ebola may lead to bigger health crises.
Ojo, a professor of Health, Physics and Environment at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, said with appropriate education and without panic, Nigeria has the capacity to manage the disease.
“Ebola is a very serious issue and must be taken seriously. But we should not create panic. Panic itself can be part of the problem. What we need is appropriate public education.
“Ebola is a well-understood disease. It is not airborne and a person is not contagious until symptomatic. It is something you can see and take care of. With appropriate education without panic, we should be able to overcome it,” Ojo said.
Speaking on ‘Safe Food, Healthy Nation: Safeguarding Food Systems in Nigeria from Farm to Fork’, the theme of the conference, Ojo called for the unbundling of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control to ensure efficiency.
He decried the weak legal framework for the operations of NAFDAC and the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, urging the federal government to provide stronger legislative backing for the agencies for them to meet the demands of the present day.
“The management of NAFDAC cannot go beyond its mandate. Its mandate and funding need to be enlarged, broken down and well defined. Saying it can only address branded food is unacceptable. How many Nigerians buy food from supermarkets? The agency should be unbundled to make it more manageable and better funded. A new legal framework for its operations is urgently needed,” Ojo said.
Commenting on vaccines and the attitude of health authorities to their use, the university don noted that vaccine usage should not be overrated, emphasising the need to keep the environment healthy rather than relying on vaccination to curb diseases.
“Vaccines are important, but we should not overrate them. The major determinant of disease is sanitation. Reports from all over the world show that when sanitation improves, health improves.
“Vaccines have their place, but preventing disease in the first place is primary. That is why we must strengthen and encourage Environmental Health Officers. They are not doing their job very well at the moment. We saw that nobody was talking about these issues, so we decided to take the bull by the horns and organise this conference on Environment and Health,” he said.
Also speaking with journalists at the conference, the President, Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria, South-West Zone, Dr. Isaac Akinwumi, said the re-emerging Ebola disease can be contained in a short time if all stakeholders tackle it with the right approach.
“Ebola is a re-emerging disease. It is not emerging. What that means is that it has come before. In 2014, stakeholders worked together at the Infection Prevention Centre level to drive away Ebola. We have started the same thing now since it was discovered. We have a lot of messages on television, radio and social media on how to prevent Ebola. It is a multidisciplinary approach. There should not be any fear about Ebola because it is re-emerging.
“We have the capacity to contain it. Ebola is not like Covid. We can easily track Ebola. We believe in prevention because it is better and cheaper than curing it. The advocacy is on prevention. If all stakeholders have the same approach used to contain it in 2014, we will contain it within a short time,” Akinwumi said.
The PUNCH had earlier reported that the LivingScience Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that has scientists as members, has been active in advocating safe vaccines and proper examination of vaccines coming to the country.
The group, in a press statement signed by the President of the Foundation, Joshua Ojo, and the Chairman, Planning Committee, 9th National Conference on Environment and Health, Adeniyi Oginni, held at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, called on the Federal Government to drop the plan to incorporate a newly developed malaria vaccine into the routine immunisation schedule in the country.
The foundation, which also raised concerns over the cultivation of Genetically Modified Organism foods in the country, said the lack of appropriate labelling of GMO foods was also a violation of people’s right to know the nature of the food they are consuming.
It subsequently called on the Nigeria Biosafety Management Agency and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control to conduct or commission appropriate chronic toxicity testing that transparently ascertains the safety of GM food products before their deployment for public consumption in the country.