The Federal Executive Council (FEC) moved yesterday to detect and contain infectious diseases from entering the Nigeria through the airports.
It approved a N45 080800000 national biosecurity and response system at five international airports to strengthen capacity.
The project approved under a 20-year Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement with Biohealth Consortium are billed for Lagos Abuja Kano Port Harcourt and Enugu international airports.
Coordinating Minister of Health/Social Welfare Prof Muhammad Ali Pate dropped the hint yesterday while briefing State House reporters after the FEC meeting chaired by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Pate said the approval came amid heightened concern over cross-border disease threats and efforts to prevent community transmission following the detection of an Ebola case in Nigeria.
According to him the patient recovered after receiving treatment in the country and had returned to her home country while identified contacts remained under quarantine and monitoring.
The minister said the airport biosecurity project which had been in the pipeline for two years would strengthen early warning detection and response through technology and improved coordination among relevant agencies.
He said more than 18 million passengers pass through Nigeria’s airports annually underscoring the importance of stronger surveillance at entry points.
The system will include aircraft wastewater surveillance air and surface sampling units and cargo and baggage bio-surveillance technologies to detect pathogens that might otherwise enter unnoticed.
‘This is not Ebola. It is all pathogens of huge public health threats’ Pate said.
The project will also establish a national surveillance operations centre to serve as a central command and control facility for real-time surveillance data integration incident monitoring and response coordination.
Laboratory facilities for field diagnostics will be deployed at entry points alongside infrastructure to facilitate information sharing and cooperation among agencies.
Pate listed participating agencies to include: the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control Port Health Services Nigeria Customs Service Nigeria Immigration Service and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.
He said the five airports were selected for the initial deployment based on passenger traffic exposure to biosecurity risks and geographical spread.
Explaining the concession structure the minister said the private partner would design finance build deploy operate and maintain the system throughout the concession period.
The Federal Government he added would provide policy institutional and regulatory support as well as oversight to ensure that national objectives were met.
At the expiration of the concession the system and its assets will revert to federal ownership under the terms of the agreement reviewed and endorsed by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC).
Pate said the initiative would improve decision-making inter-agency coordination and compliance with international health regulations while expanding the technologies available to agencies operating at entry points.
Stressing that preventing outbreaks was essential to both public health and economic stability the minister said: ‘Improving biosecurity at the points of entry particularly at the airports is so critical to our health security not only for public health but also the economic security because when pathogens come and disrupt economic activities also suffer.’ he said.
Responding to a question on financial support for people quarantined following contact with the Ebola patient Pate said the measure was intended to encourage compliance and prevent community transmission.
He explained that contacts who depended on daily earnings could face pressure to leave quarantine to provide for their families potentially exposing others if they developed the infection.
‘They have a livelihood and you ask them to stay in quarantine. They have a family’ he said.
The minister described the support as a targeted containment measure stressing that it would not automatically apply in the event of widespread community transmission.
‘Our goal is to contain it. We don’t want to be in a situation whereby we have community transmission’ he said.
Pate said contacts were identified and placed under quarantine within hours of confirmation of the case. Some initially stayed in home isolation before being transferred to designated facilities for closer monitoring.
He said the contacts would remain under observation for 21 days to establish whether they had contracted the virus.
‘We are not taking any chances. We may succeed or there may be an unfortunate one or two cases that may be affected. But if that is the case we’ll rapidly get on top of it’ he said.
According to the minister there was no positive Ebola case within Nigeria’s territory at the time of the briefing following the recovery and departure of the patient.
He however said continued vigilance was necessary to prevent fresh cases from entering the country and ensure a swift response to any infection detected among those under observation.
‘We are a large country and we don’t want to have Ebola circulating or other pathogens that may have threat to our population’ Pate said.