Health
By Anthony Isibor.
THE year 2021 will not be discussed without the devastating effects of Covid-19 in the health sector globally. As far as the world is concerned, the Covid-19 pandemic will remain the biggest cause of health concerns in 2021.
First was the restrictions created by the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although the global pandemic began in 2019, it had stayed through 2020 and extended even into 2021 with 2nd, 3rd, the Delta variant and most recently, the Omicron variant. This could be regarded as one of the greatest health challenges mankind has seen in decades.
By January 2021, Covid-19 deaths were averaged at over 11,900 per day or one life lost every eight seconds, according to a Reuters tally. As of December 6th, the total Covid-19 deaths globally was put at 5,256,285, with 265,876,379 cases recorded so far as stated by Johns Hopkins University, national public health agencies.
In Nigeria, the total Covid-19 death toll was put at 2,983 as of Tuesday December 15, 2021 by the National Center for Disease Control, NCDC. According to the centre, both the B.1.1.529 SARS-CoV-2 lineage, and the Omicron variant have been confirmed in Nigeria. While Covid-19 may have been generally disastrous, it, however, uncovered the unpreparedness of countries, especially African countries to the challenges of the outbreak of this pandemic and also revealed that the health sectors of African countries, including Nigeria were largely underfunded and lacked the requisite facilities and medical equipment needed to manage a global pandemic.
The year 2021 will also be remembered as the year where the first malaria vaccine, the RTS, S/AS01 was finally developed after decades of experimental trials.
“The long-awaited malaria vaccine for children is a breakthrough for science, child health, and malaria control,” said the WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a statement. “Using this vaccine on top of existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year,” he said.
The WHO also recommended the widespread use of the malaria vaccine for children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high spread of the disease from Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly form of malaria parasites.
According to the NCDC, the occasion is “historic” as malaria vaccines had been in the process of being developed since the 1960s.
Although malaria still remains one of the leading causes of among pregnant women and children in Nigeria and other developing countries, the discovery of the malaria vaccine in 2021 is a huge success.
In Nigeria, other health challenges include Lassa Fever, poor sanitation and hygiene, control of vector-borne diseases, maternal and infant mortality, infectious and non-communicable diseases, sewage disposal, drug and substance abuse, alcohol abuse, environmental pollution, road traffic injuries, incessant doctors strike among others.
On Lassa Fever, the NCDC said on December 2021 that Bauchi and Ebonyi States recorded new deaths from Lassa fever as the nation’s toll from the disease since the beginning of 2021 had risen to 92.
According to the latest situation report on the outbreak of the disease in the country by the NCDC, the data from the report for Week 50, which covered December 13 to 19, revealed that three more deaths were reported in the week under review.
While Bauch reported two new fatalities, Ebonyi recorded a new death from the disease.
“Cumulatively from Week 1 to Week 50, 2021, 92 deaths have been reported with a Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 20.3 per cent, which is lower than the CFR for the same period in 2020 (20.7 per cent),” the report by Channels TV quoted the NCDC as saying.
Lassa fever is an acute viral illness and a viral haemorrhagic fever first reported in the Lassa community in Borno State when two missionary nurses died from an unusual febrile illness.
Since then, Nigeria has continued to report cases and outbreaks and the disease is increasingly recognised to be endemic in many parts of West Africa such as Benin Republic, Ghana, Mali and the Mano River region (Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea).
According to the NCDC, a total of 190 new cases were suspected in 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), but just 10 cases were confirmed in four states.
They include Edo – two, Ondo – four, Bauchi – three, and Ebonyi – one, and two of them are healthcare workers.
The number of new confirmed cases, the NCDC noted, is the same as the figure reported in the previous week.
“In total for 2021, 17 states have recorded at least one confirmed case across 66 Local Government Areas,” it said. “Of all confirmed cases, 83 per cent are from Edo (43 per cent), Ondo (35 per cent), and Taraba (five per cent) States.
“The predominant age group affected is 21 – 30 years (range: <1 to 70 years, Median Age: 29 years). The male to female ratio for confirmed cases is 1:0.9. The number of suspected cases has decreased compared to that reported for the same period in 2020.”
Lassa virus is transmitted to man by infected multi-mammate rats and humans become infected from direct contact with the urine and faeces of the rat carrying the virus.
People also contract the disease by touching soiled objects, eating contaminated food, or exposure to open cuts or sores.
Secondary transmission from person to person can also occur as a result of exposure to the virus in the blood, tissue, urine, faeces or other bodily secretions of an infected patient.
However, the WHO Global Status Report on non-communicable disease listed Nigeria and other developing countries as the worst hit with deaths from non-communicable diseases.
In 2021, the life expectancy at birth in Nigeria was put at about 60.87 years, among the lowest in Africa as well as in the world.
Dec. 30, 2021 @ 19:46 GMT |
A.I
Tags: COVID-19 pandemic malaria vaccine National Center for Disease Control Omicron variant Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus WHO
