Experts in epidemiology have called for the training of more epidemiologists in the country and other West African countries to effectively prepare and address disease outbreaks.
They made the call yesterday during the scientific conference and special ministerial session organized by the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Disease Control in collaboration with the Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program, the Federal Ministry of Health and the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), among others. Speaking separately, the experts said having skilled epidemiologists would equip the continent for future epidemics, prevent diseases among the populace and retain other gains made in the area of health.
Prof. Abdulsalami Nasidi, the Acting Executive Director of the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control (RCDC), said field epidemiology laboratory training would provide Nigeria a very educated and mobilized workforce who use evidencebased scientific information for investigating and mitigating the impact of diseases on the public.
He said it was expected that the country would have enough workforce to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) requirement by 2020, adding that the regional centre was coordinating the various national centre for disease control in the sub region as no country could do it alone. Kenneth OfosuBarko, the Executive Director, African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), a network of 16 countries which train field epidemiologists said statistics had shown that there were at least a 100 epidemics on the continent such as cholera, typhoid, yellow fever and Ebola to mention a few.
He added that the epidemics would remain for some time until countries in the region were able to train a critical mass of first responders and follow it up with predicting what is likely to happen to protect the population before it happens.
He said the network was able to mobilized trained epidemiologists in Nigeria to quickly contain the Ebola outbreak unlike in Liberia, Serra-Leone and Guinea where it got out of hand because there was no corps of trained professionals.
By: Ojoma Akor
Daily Trust News
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