How West Africa lost $7bn during 2014 Ebola epidemic —Stanley Okolo, WAHO DG
By Chioma
Obinna
Four years
after Nigeria survived an outbreak of Ebola, Director General of the West
African Health Organisation, WAHO, Prof. Stanley Okolo, has said the sub-region
lost $7 billion in terms of loss aid, income and productivity during the 2014
Ebola epidemic.
Okolo, in
his presentation during the Regional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement,
REDISSE, 3rd Steering Committee Meeting in Lagos last week, urged countries to
prepare for emergency response to prevent economic, human and other losses.
He also
noted that the region learnt lessons in areas such as poor surveillance
infrastructure, poor information sharing and collaboration, poor emergency
response and inadequate financing.
“We were
involved in the 2014 Ebola epidemic and had nearly $7 billion in terms of lost
productivity, lost income, lost tourism and aid that came. This is probably
only in cost; we are not talking of the nearly 12,000 brothers, sisters,
children and women that died, we must not have that again.
“So, a lot
of work is going on but what I am really charging us to do is get ahead and
challenge each other; and also to our leaders, that they imbibe and acquire the
models and tools so as to be prepared and fight diseases,” he stated.
At the
week-long meeting to ratify recommendations made by the sub-committee in Lagos,
Okolo said REDISSE project is a regional project funded by the World Bank,
covering all the 15 ECOWAS countries and Mauritania in five-year phases from
2016 to 2023.
He disclosed
that 11 of the expected 16 countries have so far subscribed to the REDISSE
project, stating that REDISSE has five components including surveillance and
health information, laboratory capacity building, preparedness and emergency
response.
“I am challenging
the 15 countries in West Africa to be ahead of the curve because those involved
in epidemic and emergencies know it has huge economic problems. It is important
to say that the first 48 hours in an outbreak of any epidemic is critical and
what is done then is dependent on how prepared you are within that 48 hours.
“Epidemic
responsibility is dependent on the easiness of preparedness and the system in
each country; in other words, the preparedness in response depends on the
preparedness of each and every country.
“So, we are
looking at how our countries, individually, are setting up their system, their
people in terms of surveillance in getting information from all the districts,
all the public health communities and how they are analysing the information.
Okolo who
stressed the need to improve on the lessons learnt from the 2014 Ebola epidemic
said “In the region, we have set up super regional laboratories; 12 of them in
West Africa for human reference analysis and another two for veterinary. We are
also looking at how to train people, epidemiologists, to support the countries;
we have 3,000 to support across West Africa.”
The World
Bank Representative, Mr John Paul Clark said the meeting gave opportunity to
discuss the challenges they all face, adding that the meeting would help them
map out strategies to utilise the resources that would help WAHO.
“We also
seek to provide the technical support and assistance in a more timely manner
that will help the bank overcome some of the bureaucratic obstacles presently
being encountered as well as streamline the procedures,” he added.”
REDISSE
project coordinator for Nigeria and the Director, disease surveillance, Nigeria
Centre for Disease Control, Dr Olubunmi Ojo said: “There is need to
restructure, in terms of distribution of the fund. Disease surveillance is at
the grassroots and we are trying to improve surveillance, laboratory and create
more awareness.”
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