Meningitis: AMLSN Queries Emergency Unit

The outbreak of meningitis across the country has called to question the level of Nigeria’s preparedness to response to emergency, Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) has said.

AMLSN National President, Alhaji Toyosi Raheem said with the advanced warning that the country should expect averse weather; those concerns ought to have put up a strategy to contain the outbreak.

He therefore called for the establishment of permanent emergency response team.

Besides, he said the country needs to focus on research and development with emphasis on indigenous vaccine research and development, which will help resolve issue like Meningitis vaccine shortage as witnessed recently.

Addressing Journalists in Abuja on the occasion commemorating this year’s World Biomedical Day also called for the establishment of national emergency response team, which should be in place on a permanent basis with the responsibility of reacting to emergency issues.

This he said will quicken response to emergency and reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks, which always lead to heavy casualties anytime there is an outbreak.

He said, “We need to totally address our emergency response strategies even when they have not happened and when they happened we will be able to swing into action without any delay.

“In emergency response, you need to prepare and it is when you prepare well ahead of emergency that you can respond to emergency. But when you are not prepared for emergency, by the time emergency comes you will be thinking of what to do and in the process of thinking you cause more delay and body harm and more loss of lives.  So the first thing is that our preparedness for emergency must be thorough and once that is done you don’t have to wait until emergency comes before you begin to run around. “The case should be whether there is emergency or not the country must begin to think ahead, what we should do if such a thing happens.

Then when it happens how do we deploy those things that are expected to be deployed? How do we avoid the process of allowing bureaucracy before responding to the emergency  on ground.

He therefore advocated for establishment of emergency response team across the three tiers of government, saying “in fact that is how it should be. Not only at the national level, it should be at the zonal level so that one you have national emergency response at zonal basis, you can easily this emergency is in North east, South-South and ask the zonal coordinators to mobilize the health professionals already n ground to respond to it.

Apart from haven the national response team, there should also be state and local government or senatorial emergency response team in place. So that you don’t need to wait when there is any emergency.”

Raheem therefore challenged all members of the association to join in the efforts at containing the outbreak of meningitis as it did during Ebola Viral Disease and Lassa Fever.

On local production of vaccines, he said, “let me also use the medium to call on you all to rise up to the current challenge of cerebrospinal meningitis type C that is claiming lives in our country. Let us see it as a call to duty once again. It is time to improve on public health awareness so that people will know how to prevent the infection. It is also time to update our skills on laboratory diagnosis of all infectious agents so that none escapes our radar and cause havoc to innocent Nigerians. In the midst of it all, let our focus be on research and development with emphasis on indigenous vaccine research and development. This will not only save our country huge foreign exchange but provide homegrown solution to our peculiar health challenges

He stressed the need for appropriate and faster diagnosis and chemotherapy especially the rational use of antibiotics.”

AMLSN president who also expressed worries over the mis-use and abuse of antibiotics, which he said could be blamed on poverty, ignorance and weak regulations in the various health practices.

Speaking on Antibiotic Resistance under the theme Antibiotic Resistance: Biomedical Laboratory Scientists Respond to the Global Threat, Raheem said, “There has been use, mis-use and abuse of antibiotics in our various communities especially in Nigeria. The danger arising from this range from wastage of drugs (antibiotics), development of side effects some of which include damage to organs and systems, development of resistance by the microorganisms, prolonged hospital visits/admissions due to treatment failures and complications,  loss of avoidable man-hours or economically productive hours amongst others. You will agree with us that these are global threats to human health and productivity. The uncontrolled use and misuse of antibiotics in animals’ feeds and poultry has further worsened the menace of antibiotic resistance.

“Imagine what the outcome of a drug resistant strain in an epidemic outbreak of meningitis and other infectious diseases would be! It is better imagined than experienced. We are already battling with emerging drug resistance in HIV, TB, malaria, diarrhea and other enteric diseases.”

Source: The Nation