The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has mobilised about 500 infection prevention and control (IPC) alums and media fellows to strengthen Nigeria’s preparedness for Ebola and other public health emergencies.
The initiative aims to improve early detection strengthen screening and triage protect healthcare workers and promote accurate public information to prevent transmission.
Speaking at a virtual IPC Alumni Assembly on Friday NCDC Director-General Dr Jide Idris urged trained professionals to apply their expertise to early detection and containment stressing that healthcare facilities must prepare before suspected cases arrive.
‘We want active containment. We don’t want to be passive. We want to go at it with all that we have’ he said.
Idris represented by Dr Tochi Okwor Head of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the NCDC identified population density urbanisation and mobility as factors that could complicate containment if suspected cases were not promptly detected.
He warned that Ebola symptoms could resemble those of malaria and other common infections increasing the risk of delayed diagnosis and exposure among healthcare workers and patients.
He urged facilities to strengthen screening and triage maintain standard precautions use personal protective equipment (PPE) based on assessed risk and promptly report suspected cases.
‘Hand hygiene and risk-based PPE are non-negotiable’ he said.
Idris also urged IPC professionals to identify gaps in protective equipment isolation facilities environmental cleaning and referral systems. He said the NCDC would engage state commissioners for health and IPC focal persons to encourage greater use of trained professionals.
The assembly held under the theme ‘One Network Many Actions’ was supported by DRASA Health Trust the Centre for Infection Control and Patient Safety (CICAPS) and the Media Epidemiology Infodemiology and Social Behaviour Change/Risk Communication Fellowship (MEDIA-EIS).
Ms Niniola Williams Managing Director of DRASA Health Trust outlined three priority activities for participating facilities: refresher training on Ebola and IPC; strengthening and practising screening and triage procedures for five consecutive days; and assessing facility readiness using an approved checklist based on the national IPC scorecard.
She said the activities would help facilities identify weaknesses test procedures and improve preparedness using available resources while seeking management support for additional supplies.
The exercises were scheduled to begin on October 26 with a review meeting planned for the last week of November.
Prof. Sade Ogunsola Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos and a key figure in developing Nigeria’s Diploma in Infection Prevention and Control (DIPC) programme said the 2014 Ebola outbreak exposed gaps in facility leadership professional training and healthcare worker protection.
She recalled that the outbreak prompted efforts to develop a structured competency-based IPC programme with support from the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ogunsola said infection prevention must remain a routine responsibility rather than a response activated only during emergencies.
‘IPC is really about the routine I would say the boring work we do in healthcare facilities every day where like soldiers you prepare for war in peacetime’ she said.
She urged alums to update their knowledge mentor colleagues and strengthen infection prevention across primary secondary and tertiary health facilities.
On her part Ms Racheal Abujah a public health correspondent with the News Agency of Nigeria called for stronger collaboration between IPC professionals and journalists to translate technical guidance into clear practical public information.
She proposed simplifying approved guidance amplifying expert voices relaying public concerns to response teams and reporting on healthcare worker safety.
‘IPC protects people in healthcare settings; effective communication helps extend that protection to communities’ she said.
Participants also raised concerns about inadequate resources including triage stations and handwashing facilities.