Climate change and yellow fever: The preventive health concerns

Much can be done to prevent and mitigate the health impact of climate change; timely information on an impending outbreak which will help enable the implementation of control measures. Also, ideally we should have an effective epidemiological surveillance system which is well monitored such that outbreak of diseases can be detected and controlled at the […]

Much can be done to prevent and mitigate the health impact of climate change; timely information on an impending outbreak which will help enable the implementation of control measures.

Also, ideally we should have an effective epidemiological surveillance system which is well monitored such that outbreak of diseases can be detected and controlled at the local government level before they snowball into a national emergency. State ministries of health should have their internally developed protocol for responding to these outbreaks with support from the Federal Government.

There are exciting times ahead in the fight against disease outbreaks and epidemics, especially at a time when donor nations are curtailing spending. Now is the time for the Nigerian government to fund early detection and prevention of epidemics. Preventing epidemics before they start saves the government money and improves the health of all Nigerians. We must stop the hawking and selling of fake yellow fever cards to passengers at international airports in the country. We must also start thinking ahead and increase funding at the community, local, state and national levels to shore up health systems and prevent the spread of outbreaks.

Katsina State and many others launched the mass injectable yellow fever vaccine programme which is now active in and managed by the Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHCDA) in hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, markets, motor parks and other places. We know that there will be more outbreaks of current diseases, new emerging diseases threat and re-emergence of those threats we thought we have eliminate.

So we need to also increase community to community sensitisation and social mobilisation, increase surveillance, strengthen routine immunisation and entomological surveys should be conducted.

We have all it takes. There is no excuse for being caught unprepared. Let us all advocate for more support! Yellow fever could be near you. Get vaccinated today.

 

Yusuf Hassan Wada writes from Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.