As emerging and re-emerging diseases continue to constitute major health challenges, the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) has called for improved diagnostic and treatment to mitigate its impact in the country.
The Director of Research at NIMR, Prof. Rosemary Audu made the call while speaking to newsmen at the institute’s monthly briefing in Lagos on Tuesday.
Audu, a professor of Medical Virology, shared her team’s findings on Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers (VHFs) in some parts of the country.
Audu said research work carried out between 2018 to 2022 on VHFs in some parts of the country, showed active infections of diseases like Dengue Fever, Yellow Fever, Lassa Fever, Zika virus and Chikungunya.
VHFs are a group of illnesses caused by viruses that damage the blood vessels and can cause severe bleeding.
Some hemorrhagic fever viruses can also cause mild symptoms like body aches and fatigue
She explained that the viruses can cause not just morbidity and mortality, but could affect the organs and result in bleeding and death.
She added that surveillance at the various entry points into the country should be improved to detect travellers with these fevers as they could pose a threat to the country.
“Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, particularly VHFs are common in Nigeria.
“From the results I have presented so far, there is need to enhance the diagnostic capacity of detecting these viral infections in patients with fever.
“Beyond malaria, there are other things that can cause illness in a patient.
“Health workers should have a high index of suspicion as there are many other things that can cause illnesses that anti-malaria drugs can not address.”
She said: “What we are using here for testing and research on VHFs is a PCR machine.
“Not many labs in the country have access to PCR laboratory equipment.
“Then, we also need to improve our surveillance of emerging and emerging infectious diseases, (1:09) especially at our pointd of entry.
“We still need to improve on what we have, to probably get cellulose kits that will be available for labs to use in the country to detect VHFs for proper management, though they are expensive,” she said.
Audu said the NIMR team would expand its scope of VHFs surveillance by conducting research on viral diseases in other part of the country.
She, however, attributed inadequate funding and irregular funding as some of the challenges affecting its research work.
NAN
