By Oluwafunke Ishola
A public health physician, Prof. Tanimola Akande, has appealed to the three levels of government to increase the number of environmental health inspectors to reduce the spread of Lassa fever disease.
Akande, former President, Association of Public Health Physicians, made the plea in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.
According to him, the incidence of Lassa fever in most states is worrisome and requires concerted efforts to reduce the burden of the disease.
Akande attributed the challenge of inadequate health officials to lull in government’s recruitment, noting that environmental health officials were few for the country’s population.
“Population and numbers of houses have increased rapidly, however, the number of the health workforce have not increased to meet the demands of the growing population and development.
“Quite a number of ailments are due to poor environment. We need to have functional health inspectors that will go around houses as done in the 60s.
“Appropriate sanctions should also be given to those who aren’t keeping their environment clean,” he said.
Akande noted that the few health inspectors should extend their scope of focus beyond abattoirs and marketplaces to create a more healthier environment.
He noted that preventive measures were critical, stressing the need to enhance sensitisation of the public on prevention and transmission of Lassa fever.
“There’s a need to create more awareness on the proper storage of food and hygienic environment to prevent the breeding of rats.
“The way we dump refuse arbitrarily would encourage the breeding of rats, let’s encourage people to dispose of refuse appropriately,” he said.
The professor also appealed to governments to ensure good surveillance system that would pick up cases of Lassa fever as early as possible.
He added that when the cases were picked, investigation should be conducted to determine factors driving the virus to prevent further outbreak.
Akande noted that the current situation of having few centres that can treat Lassa fever cases was inappropriate.
He stressed the need to improve funding for healthcare in order to establish more facilities for treatment of Lassa fever cases.
NAN reports that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said that 23 states had recorded at least one confirmed case of Lassa fever across 93 local government areas.
Lassa fever is an acute, hemorrhagic virus carried by a type of rat that is common in West Africa.
Humans usually become infected with Lassa virus through exposure to food or household items contaminated with urine or faeces of infected Mastomys rats.
The disease is endemic in the rodent population in parts of West Africa. (NAN)
