The Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that the federal government would commit more resources to help prevent diseases and epidemics in the country.
Prof Ali Pate, Minister of Health, said in a press briefing that his ministry will commit resources to ensure that the country is better prepared to respond to outbreaks and pandemics in the future.
“Whether it is Lassa fever, diphtheria, or meningitis, they will happen because we have left our health security very low,” Prof Pate said.
“We would invest more to ensure that we strengthen our public health core capabilities to serve surveillance, to be able to respond to outbreaks sooner before they get out of hand because we did that with Ebola and with polio.”
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Mr Pate made the announcement while unveiling the Ministry of Health’s four-point roadmap for improving healthcare services across the country.
Mr Pate pointed out that the Ministry of Health will review the leadership of all tertiary and teaching hospitals in the country to ensure high-quality leadership in the sector.
“We will strengthen the regulatory capacity of our institutions like NAFDAC,” he said.
Furthermore, Mr Pate said the Ministry of Health will endeavour to develop the health sector’s value chain, which has been neglected, by promoting domestic health research.
He went on to remark that the majority of the country’s medications, roughly 70%, were imported from countries of similar size and that it is a poor reflection that the country does not develop its own vaccines.
