AKINWALE ABOLUWADE
There is need for both the federal and state governments to place premium on disease management and control through capacity building, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has said.
The Director General of NCDC, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, during the first memorial lecture of Prof. David Olufemi Olaleye in Ibadan, on Thursday, said that the federating units must ensure that primary health centres in their communities were adequately equipped and funded.
Olaleye, a frontline virologist at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, who was at the forefront of fight against COVID-19 in Oyo State, passed on in 2021.
Adetifa, in an online lecture titled, ‘Controlling epidemic diseases in Nigeria: Challenges, lessons and opportunities,’ said that investment in health and giving residents access to quality healthcare would engender growth and development.
According to him, preparedness for outbreaks of diseases through capacity building is cheaper than embarking on late response to diseases’ outbreaks.
The NCDC scribe said that infectious diseases such as COVID-19 required collaboration between health and non-health workers in a resolve to curb the menace.
He said, “We have had a significant improvement so far based on the investment on the response ( to diseases). We need to do more, to invest more (in order) to prevent further disease outbreak.
“We need to ensure (that) all sub-national units are able to maintain stronger response to national security and health system to make us stronger as a whole. If we are to ensure our national health security, we must first work on our primary health sector.”
Adetifa, who listed low human capacity building, poor health financing and limited resources as some of the challenges being faced in researches on disease prevention, urged governments at all levels to develop the primary health centres.
Among the researchers and medical experts who addressed the forum were the Head, Department of Virology, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Prof. Georgina Odaibo; former Chief Medical Director, University College Hospital, Ibadan; and Prof. Robb Murphy from Northwestern University, Chicago, United States of America.
The experts, who eulogized Olaleye’s virtues, said that he would be remembered for his contributions to the health sector development, including his commitment to production of new generation of researchers.
Odaibo expressed joy that Olaleye, her mentor, was being remembered for living a life of service.
The David O. Olaleye Endowment Foundation, was launched to give grants to outstanding academics (registered postgraduate students of any recognised Nigerian university).
