NCDC Commences Integrated Health Emergency

On May 8, 2023

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said it has commenced an acute emergency response to managing COVID-19 as part of integrated healthcare delivery for all infectious diseases. A statement by the Director General of the NCDC, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, disclosed that Nigeria had already de-escalated its COVID-19 response since 2022 in response to local epidemiology, and focused on encouraging COVID-19 vaccination and recommended discretionary use of face masks and other public health safety measures according to personal risk assessments.

He said the move was complemented by efforts to leverage the pandemic response to improve national health security through health system strengthening, improving public health emergency management training, laboratory and infrastructural upgrades and strategic focus on improving emergency preparedness and planning at state and local government levels.

Adetifa said: “As part of its integrated disease surveillance strategy, the NCDC continues to encourage routine COVID-19 testing along with other infectious diseases as may be indicated in healthcare settings as part of clinical care, for pandemic flu preparedness, as part of bi-directional testing during investigations for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and malaria, and in high-risk populations. Working with partners, the NCDC is also piloting pan-respiratory virus surveillance which is aligned with the WHO’s recently declared preparedness and resilience for emerging threats (PRET) initiative,” he said.

The NCDC DG said that as part of the genomic surveillance, the center will introduce wastewater/environmental surveillance to track not just SARS-CoV-2 but antimicrobial resistance, Mpox and typhoid (salmonella).

“Finally, we continue to work on consolidating COVID-19 pandemic laboratory investments into a cohesive tiered national network of public health laboratories as prescribed in the NCDC Act (2018).

“With the continued emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases, our frequent and often concurrent disease outbreaks and public health investments made during the pandemic to ensure health security in the country will need to be sustained,” he added.

Wumi/Punch