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Tag: NCDC DG

  • Number of Nigerians who died from Cholera in 2021 doubles COVID-19 deaths from inception to date – NCDC DG

    Number of Nigerians who died from Cholera in 2021 doubles COVID-19 deaths from inception to date – NCDC DG

    The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has revealed that number of Nigerians who died of cholera since the beginning of the year 2021 is twice as many as those killed by COVID-19 from 2020 when the pandemic broke out in the country till now.

    While the death toll from cholera has already exceeded 3,600 just about a month to the end of the year, the figure of those who died of COVID-19 complications since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country has yet to cross the 3,000 mark.

    Cholera, an acute diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine, is contracted when patients swallow food or water contaminated with cholera bacteria.

    Although the infection is often mild or without symptoms, it can be severe and life-threatening sometimes.

    Speaking on Wednesday on a monitored Channels Television programme, NCDC Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa said: “Sadly, cholera has actually killed more people than COVID so far,” he said. “We have had I think a little over 3,600 deaths from cholera for the period of the year under review – the beginning of the year (2021) to date.”

    Nigeria reported its first case of COVID-19 in late February last year and since then till the end of 2020, authorities said a total of 1,289 people lost the fight to the disease.

    As of November 30 (Tuesday), the number of those who have died stood at 2,977 – suggesting that 1,688 more people died of COVID-19 in 2021.

    The death toll from cholera in the last 11 months – as revealed by Adetifa, when compared with the figure of those killed by COVID-19, shows a difference of 1,912 which indicates that the former has killed more than twice as many people as the latter.

    With the emergence of a new strain of COVID-19 known as Omicron (B.1.1.529 SARS-CoV-2 lineage), there are fears that Nigeria is focusing more on the pandemic than other diseases like cholera that have claimed more lives.

    In his reaction, the NCDC chief explained that the agency has been tackling the diseases headlong and would not rest on its oars.

    “I will like to reassure the public that while all of the public attention is on COVID, the NCDC is joggling several balls in terms of the other priority diseases of public health importance and we are responding to all of them,” said Adetifa. “So, the talk is about COVID, and nobody knows that we have teams out in about five, six states now helping with Cholera response.

    “We’ve had rapid response teams in all of the states that have had cholera outbreaks. We have incident managers for Lassa fever that respond to cases that are reported, we are currently preparing for the meningitis season – the refresher training, the sensitisation.

    “We would like all of these areas to receive equal or even more attention, but we have no choice but to focus on all of the diseases that are likely to have public health impact on the country according to the mandate that we have been given.”

  • Benefits of having children in school outweigh risks of COVID-19 transmission – NCDC DG

    Benefits of having children in school outweigh risks of COVID-19 transmission – NCDC DG

    The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said Friday that its support for the Federal Government’s decision to reopen schools for the second term of the 2020/2021 academic session was based on the fact that the benefits of having children in school outweigh the risks of transmission of COVID-19.

    But NCDC Director-General, Chikwe Ihekweazu, also said though children are not the face of COVID-19 at the moment, they risk being among its highest and biggest victims.

    Ihekweazu spoke during the virtual Plenary Session and Annual General Meeting of the Pediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN) in Lagos.

    He noted that the current data and statistics for the welfare of children in Nigeria was sad and troubling, and having them stay out of school would further aggravate the situation by denying them what they require to have healthy and productive lives.

    The Director-General said Nigeria has the highest number of children out of school, nearly 31 million of children under the age of five and about half of the population under the age of 15.

    He added that 10.5 million children are currently out of school and closure of schools may result in 10 million being out of school forever.

    Earlier, the Director-General said the worst outcomes of the virus had been spared in children because the presentation in them was less severe, often asymptomatic and often not clinically significant to visit the hospitals.

    His words: “Just 10 percent of our cases have been confirmed in children and one per cent deaths.

    “The few deaths that occurred in children were likely to have happened to them through morbidity that led to deficits in coping with the virus.”

    Ihekweazu called for collaboration among governments, schools and parents to effectively protect children from contracting the virus.

    Also speaking, a Consultant Paediatrician, Dr. Ngozi Onyia, said the healthcare system was plagued with many issues that stood as threats in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Onyia, who is also the Managing Director of Paelon Memorial Hospital, said the major threats of health workers managing the patients included burn-out, exhaustion, high infections among staff, and over-regulation without clear guidance from the government.

    The theme of the event is: “Child Survival in Nigeria Amid COVID-19 Pandemic: Issues, Challenges and Way Forward.

  • NCDC DG breaks silence, says Infectious Diseases Bill gives me excessive powers

    NCDC DG breaks silence, says Infectious Diseases Bill gives me excessive powers

    The Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, has said the Control of Infectious Diseases Bill gives him excessive powers.

    He said: “The NCDC feels the Bill, as drafted, gives excessive powers to the Director General of the organisation.”

    Ihekweazu re-echoed the observations of other health stakeholders that the Bill does not meet human rights stipulations enshrined in the Constitution.

    “The Control of Infectious Diseases Bill is the first concrete effort by the legislature to address these problems and is, therefore, a step in the right direction.

    “The Bill is laudable for recognising the need to rapidly strengthen the existing system for managing public health emergences,” he said.

    Also, the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) and Health Minister Dr. Osagie Ehanire, differed on Thursday on the Bill.

    The minister and the council expressed their observations during the concluding part of the public hearing on the Bill at the National Assembly.

    The two-day hearing on the contentious Bill was held by the Joint Committees of Justice, Health Services and Health Institutions.

    While NIREC supported the legislation, saying there are gaps in the laws on infectious diseases in the country, Ehanire noted that another law was unnecessary.

    The minister said he would prefer the Bill to be subsumed in the NCDC Amendment Act and the Quarantine Amendment Act.

    In a presentation by its Executive Secretary, Prof. Cornelius Omonokhua, NIREC said: “We observed that there are provisions in the Bill which are likely to affect religious activities or sensitivities. One of provisions is that of Section 12 of the Bill which deals with disposal of dead bodies.

    “Another such provision is that of Section 19 of the Bill which deals with prohibition or restriction of meetings and gatherings. The National Assembly should avoid inserting provisions that do not take religious sensibilities or federal structure of the country into cognisance.”

    Christian Association Of Nigeria (CAN) on Thursday urged Nigerians to reject the passing into law the proposed Bill.

    It described the Bill as a conspiracy to destroy civil and human rights of Nigerians.

    CAN National Secretary Joseph Daramola addressed reporters at the Ecumenical Centre in Abuja after speaking before the Committee on Health Control of Infectious Diseases Bill 2020 during a public hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Services.

    He said: “CAN has reviewed the Control of Infectious Diseases Control Bill 2020 (HB 836). We have studied the Bill (in-depth) and observed that if passed for implementation, it shall trigger anarchy, disorder and insecurity. It is ‘superfluous’ but undermines every other authority in the Federal Republic of Nigeria (The President, state governors and the likes). It will make the Legislature that enacted the law become irrelevant towards implementation and control.”

    “If passed into law, it will violate the supremacy of 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, with multiple ultra vires contraventions, vide Section 1(1) and (3) of the Constitution. The Bill is gross infringement and multiple violations of Citizens’ Fundamental Human Rights making it supra-constitutional entity.”

  • Nigeria’s 200,000 daily COVID-19 testing capacity grossly underutilised – NCDC DG

    The Director-General Nigeria of the Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekwazu on Monday said the nation possesses 200,000 daily test capacity for COVID-19 but the facility was grossly underutilized because many Nigerians are not coming out for tests.

    The NCDC DG told the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee that only 100,000 tests are being conducted daily.

    He urged the lawmakers to assist in educating Nigerians on the need to go for test so as to ascertain the extent of the infection in the country.

    Nigeria currently has 30 molecular laboratories for tests.

    Minister of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire said at the ministerial briefing also in Abuja yesterday that the “aggressive tracking and testing” led to the increase of laboratories from five to 30 with the intention to take it to at least one in each of the 36 states, to reduce turn around twice.”

    Dr. Ihekwazu also said that the some state government were not collaborating with the Agency in the testing process.

    He said since the beginning of the pandemic, the Federal Government had made available to the Agency N5.620 billion for its activities, out of which, about N1.2 billion has been expended by the Agency.

    The NCDC boss said reports making the round that the Agency spent over N1 billion on SMS are false as the Agency had not spent a single kobo on messages adding that the sms being dished out were free from the telecom providers.

    Represented by the Permanent Secretary, General Services in the Office of the SGF, Olusegun Adeyemi Adekunle, PTF Chairman said the Coronavirus was still a very dangerous disease which is spreading fast and killing people.

    He said: “As at January this year, there were only about 7000 cases in just two countries. Today, infection rate stands at over seven million across over 200 countries globally. That is to suggest the fast rate of the spread.

    “We need your support to be able to do what has to be done. A lot of legislative work is needed. The next pandemic must not catch us unaware. We must prepare for it. We are working with ICPC and civil society groups because accountability is key in whatever we are doing”.

    The SGF has earlier told the Committee saddled with the statutory responsibility of probing how public funds are expended that so far, the Federal Government had released about N22.163 billion to the Task Force for its activities.

    Out of the money, he said only N164.929 million had been spent while the balance is still in the PTF account with the Central Bank of Nigeria awaiting the completion of procurement process by the various agencies involved in the fight against the pandemic.

    He however said that the PTF was not in a position to disclose how much has been received as donations from both foreign and local partners, stressing that only the Accountant General of the Federation is in a position to disclose that since he has the records.

    He said the PTF was established only to provide leadership for the fight against COVID-19.

    The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mustapha Sulieman, told the Committee that out of its budget of N500 million in the PTF budget, about N250 million was released to it, out of which N164 million was spent on the evacuation of Nigerians from abroad.

    He denied reports that Nigerians evacuated from abroad were made to pay for their accommodation, adding that what they were required to pay for was their flight tickets, while the government took care of their accommodation.

    He said even though there was an earlier circular from the Nigerian Mission requesting those to be evacuated to pay for their accommodation, the circular was later withdrawn while the government made efforts to pay to the accommodation.

    National Coordinator of the Task Force, Dr. Sani Aliyu said a total budget of N35 billion was approved for the fight against COVID-19, out of which N22 billion had been released and currently in the custody of the Accountant General of the Federation.

    He explained that the PTF is waiting for all the agencies involved in the Covid 19 fight to bring their procurement plans which will be approved by the PTF before the Accountant General is authorised to effect payment.

    Dr. Aliyu said the PTF is only a sign off agency saying “apart from providing leadership, the PTF only cross check submissions from the MDAs and gives directives to the Accountant General to effect payment”.

    Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Rep. Oluwole Oke said: “The Accountant General should cause appearance before this committee unfailingly on Monday, June 15 or face arrest. If he fails to appear, we will be forced to issue a warrant for his arrest”.

  • COVID-19: Buhari receives briefings from Health Minister, NCDC DG [Photos]

    COVID-19: Buhari receives briefings from Health Minister, NCDC DG [Photos]

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday received briefing by Health Minister Dr. Osagie Ehanire and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Director-General Chikwe Ihekweazu, on the latest development on Coronavirus and the ‘strange’ disease in Kano.

    Ehanire told reporters that the meeting was on the position of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 Control.

    The President’s meeting with the minister and the NCDC director-general came less than 24 hours to the expiration of the 14-day extension to a lockdown in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos and Ogun states to contain the pandemic.

    Ehanire said the PTF presented to the President its advice and recommendations on way forward as regard the ongoing fight against the spread of the deadly virus.

    “We also brought the overall summary of position of the Presidential Task Force which as you know comprises of not only the health minister but other ministries.

    “We have aggregated the opinions that we have, weighing the health and the socio-economic factors and everything, to present our own opinion and recommendations to Mr President.’’

    Ehanire said the nation was winning the fight against the pandemic as all relevant health institutions had agreed to work together to achieve the desired goal of defeating the novel Coronavirus.

    He said: “The fight is going on very well. As I said, all countries have continued with the struggle against Coronavirus, using the strategies that they have developed for their own countries.

    “We have developed a strong strategy as we are working with other experts groups like the NCDC and relevant health organisations. So, we are also working with the states and the governors.’’

    On Kano’s strange disease,” which has killed many people, the minister said his ministry had been communicating with relevant agencies, including the Kano State Government with a view to addressing the health problem.

    Ihekweazu advised Nigerians against wasting their meagre resources on the procurement of what he described as uncertified Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits.

    He said: “We will continue to build up our testing strategies. At the moment 14 testing centres have been activated across the country.

    “We want to bring the test closer to every state. Everybody is working very hard to solve this problem.

    “I can see that some people are already procuring Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits. They don’t work as far as we know.

    “So, I will really recommend that we all stick to the National Strategy, build on it, support its expansion and together we will get on top of the pandemic.’’