Invest in port health services, Stakeholders urge private sector

Some stakeholders in the health sector have called on the private sector to invest in the Nigerian Port Health services (PHS) unit of the Federal Ministry of the Health (FMOH).

They said this at a two-day retreat on COVID-19 and health security in Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja.

Supreme reports that the Port Health Services unit is charged with the responsibility of preventing infectious diseases from entering the country through the borders.

They also called on the stakeholders to join forces in rescuing the Port Health Services from total collapse due to poor funding and insufficient human resources.

The Coordinator, African Health Budget Network (AHBN), Dr Aminu Magashi, emphasised that more attention was needed for the Port Health Services unit to thrive.

"The Port Health Services in Nigeria is still struggling with dwindling financial and human resources for them to do their job.

"The Port Health should be taken very seriously because it is the point of entry where you control spread of disease and diseases outbreaks from the port.

"If you don't empower Port Health, we may likely have a lot of risks from infectious disease spread in Nigeria. It is not only about COVID-19. Lasser fever, cholera and so many other things could be there.

"We need to strengthen them, we need to ensure that there is enough annual budget for the Port Health through FMOH," said Magashi.

He advocated alternative forms of funding for the Port Health Service apart from the federal government.

He urged Nigerians to raise domestic resource mobilisation to support the Port Health.

"Wealthy Nigerians, religious leaders, philanthropists and other well-meaning Nigerians can also support and take responsibility of the staff of the Port Health.

"I am calling on the private sector, the airline companies and businesses to all invest in Port Health so that we can control our borders and prevent spread of diseases," Magashi stated.

He said even though the COVID-19 pandemic had crashed the economy of Africa including Nigeria, it was not an excuse for Nigeria not to put in money in Port Health to prevent infectious diseases at the port.

Earlier, the Director, Port Health Services, Dr Geoffrey Okatubo, enumerated the challenges of the unit to include insufficient manpower to adequately cover all Nigerian Point Of Entries (POEs).

Others, he said included inadequate number of trained skilled manpower for the implementation of International Health Regulation (IHR) core capacities.

He added insufficient skilled personnel with offshore certification to investigate and respond to public health outbreaks in offshore locations and sub-optimal work space at some POEs as part of the challenges.

Other challenges, according to him, are absence of secondary screening areas and holding areas in some POEs; inadequate multimedia communication gadgets and lack of utility vehicles, speedboats and life jackets in most POEs for public health response.

Okatubo, therefore, appealed for the recruitment of relevant manpower to fill the IHR gap in PHS; surge support in epidemics by partners, provision of adequate work space and tools for POE and extension of trainings.

He said the trainings should include Integrated Training for Surveillance Officers in Nigeria (ITSON), Advance and Frontline FETP, among others for PHS staff.

"Port Health Services, as the competent public health authority in the country's POE requires a stronger collaboration with relevant partners.

"This is for the timely institution of proactive activities required to prevent and minimise the effect of public health events across international boundaries," said Okatubo.

Supreme reports that the two-day strategic retreat is organised by the Africa Health Budget Network in collaboration with National Advocates for Health, Nigerian Cancer Society and relevant advocacy civil society.

The retreat is a follow-up to the National COVID-19 Summit, which was organised by the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 in Abuja in December 2021.

The retreat was declared open by the PSC Technical Head, Dr Mukhtar Muhammad, who commended the efforts of AHBN Coordinator for his resilience and doggedness in ensuring the hosting of the Summit.

Muhammad, who was represented by Dr Ogbonna Amanze, Technical Adviser, PSC, called on participants to ensure that the recommendations of the summit were put into action to improve COVID-19 response and health security in Nigeria.