Dr. Ehanire made it known that as of the 29th of April, 2020, no less than 1532 have been confirmed to have contacted COVID-19, with a record 825 tests done and 195 new cases identified.

He appealed to Members of the National Assembly and their state counterparts to get involved in the disease surveillance and notification efforts in their constituencies, as well as actively support the drive to rapidly increase bed spaces for isolation and treatment.

The Minister said that the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) had completed plans to kick-start training and capacity building of Intensive Care workforce for various parts of the country, while enjoining the citizenry to adhere to public health advisory and guidelines from the Ministry, as these measures are critical and integral parts of the strategy to ease restrictions on the 4th of May.

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In response to the plight of people like Ali, the Nigerian Government is making moves to end communicable diseases among people who use drugs.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of 2017 estimated that 271 million people globally were said to use drugs of which 11.3 million are injectable (Source: UN World Drug report 2019). In addition to associated mortality, injecting drug use has been linked with transmission of communicable diseases including HIV, Hepatitis C, Tuberculosis and a host of other blood-borne infections. People who inject drugs (PWID) account for 10% of HIV infections and about 23% of new Hepatitis C infections, while Tuberculosis is a leading AIDS-defining illness and cause of mortality among people living with HIV who inject drugs (Source: WHO – HIV Topics / WHO Hepatitis C factsheet).

“Nigeria, with her huge population continues to experience an untold effect of drug use especially among youth,” say Mr Mashood Lawal Director Food and Drugs, Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH).

In addition, Government is making concerted efforts to address communicable diseases associated with drug use. This is being achieved through programming for key population groups within various national programmes focusing mainly on behavioral change and preventive interventions, including attempts at biomedical support and dilatory effects.

An independent report commissioned by the Global Fund in 2016 indicates a burgeoning need for a full package of interventions for these population group as defined by WHO. Also the findings of the national drug use survey conducted in 2018, revealed that 14.4% of the general population use drugs, a rate higher than the global average of 5.6%. The report further reveals that there are more people who inject drugs than previously estimated and of concern are injecting practices with increased risk of HIV and Viral Hepatitis transmission (UNODC-National Drug Use Survey Report,2018 ). This evidence calls for a holistic health sector driven approach for curbing the menace of drug use.

With this compelling evidence, WHO advocated to FMoH for the need to define a health response for the drug control. Hence, the National Programme on Drug Demand and Harm Reduction (NDDHR) which is closely linked to the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Elimination of Drug Abuse (PACEDA) was established in May,2019 with the mandate of coordinating the health sector response to drug use. Similarly, a National technical working group (TWG) was inaugurated to support the take-off of the programme.

“Since inception of the programme, WHO has been at the forefront, leading other partners including the UN Organization for Drug Control, Global Fund and national stakeholders to support the government to develop a policy statement and strategy which will be incorporated into the National Drug Control Master Plan,” states Dr Rex Mpazanje, Communicable/Non communicable diseases cluster lead for WHO Nigeria.

“Similarly, a road map and National guideline for the implementation of a needle and syringe program (NSP) geared towards the elimination of communicable among PWID was developed. The NSP which is being funded through the Global Fund with technical support from WHO is expected to be piloted in 3 states across the country in the coming months,” he added.

Beyond communicable diseases, WHO is concerned with other health and social burdens associated with drug use. Therefore, efforts will continue to be made to enhance public health actions by providing the required leadership, strengthening partnerships and collaboration between government and health institutions towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDG 2030).

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Validating the Nigeria Health Workforce Profile 2018 provides the national health workforce information needed for planning and it is a crucial milestone in the health sector considering that the last country profile was developed and published in 2012.

In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary FMoH Alhaji Abdullahi Mashi represented by Dr. Evelyn Ngige stated “This document will not only better our understanding of our health workforce’s stock, characteristics and performance, it will also further help to generate insights into gaps and possibilities for health workforce strengthening”.

She reiterated, “The document will assist policy and decision makers at all levels to develop appropriate strategies to ensure that the correct numbers of professionals are trained, equitably distributed and retained towards achieving Universal Health Coverage.”

She also thanked the WHO for the great support demonstrated in strengthening health workforce planning and management especially in the updating of the country’s HRH profile.

The profile demonstrates Nigeria’s significant progress in achieving the Global Strategy for Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 milestone which requires every country to track health workforce dynamics and share human resource for health (HRH) data needed for planning towards achieving UHC. Achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Nigeria is largely dependent on adequate and equitable supply of the needed health workforce to improve access of Nigerians to integrated people-centered quality health services.

At the validation workshop, the WHO Officer in Charge (OiC) Dr Peter Clement,stated that “African countries need a global focus on how human resource works and how it is managed”. Dr Peter reaffirmed WHO’s commitment for continued partnership with the Government of Nigeria  in strengthening Human Resource for Health management and planning. He further indicated that the profile when finalized will set the foundation for achieving the goal of the Strategic Pillar 3 and Priority Area 9 of the Second National Strategic Health Development Plan 2018 – 2022, for having in place the right number, skill mix of competent, motivated, productive and equitably distributed health work force for optimal and quality health care services provision.

This principle has been guiding the WHO’s ongoing support in ensuring that health workforce information is readily available for management and planning in Nigeria.

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