‘Synergy, Vigilance, Key to Mitigating Biological Shocks’

Sunday Ehigiator

Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has emphasised the importance of synergy among all stakeholders, vigilance, and documenting lessons from experiences with biological shocks, such as the Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks in Nigeria.

He made this known while speaking recently at a launch of the book titled ‘An Imperfect Storm’, written and published by the former Director-General (DG) of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, and his wife, the Managing Director of Nigeria Health Watch, Vivianne Ihekweazu,

In his address, Prof. Abayomi shared his experiences managing the COVID-19 response in Lagos, highlighting the challenges and tensions between state and federal authorities.

He also acknowledged the efforts of Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, in developing a public health strategy for Ebola and COVID-19.

According to him, Lagos had invested in infrastructure and biosecurity measures before the COVID-19 pandemic, which helped mitigate its impact.

However, he warned of the ongoing threat of high-consequence pathogens, including the potential for laboratory accidents or intentional release.

His words: “It is important that we document these kinds of activities and learn from our experiences. Of all the shocks, the biological shock is one you can preemptively create a strategy to mitigate its impact and luckily for us in Lagos, we had experienced the outbreak of Ebola at that time.

“Long story short, we got over Ebola in Lagos miraculously and very quickly but that virus which was in the western side of Africa; Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea, devastated the region completely.

“I went into that region after the Lagos outbreak died down and even today, I don’t believe those three countries have recovered yet.

“It is important that as a sub-region and country, we can know what biological shock is and how we mitigate the effect as government and civil societies.

“We were often required to move faster than what federal policy was doing and that created some tension between Lagos and Abuja but in the end, everyone was trying to figure out what’s best for the country.

“We documented a bit of what happened in Lagos but I haven’t dared to go back to look at it because I don’t want to trigger my PTSD. 

“Generally speaking, this is happening because we are trying to understand what will happen in nature if a virus or any other pathogen acquires some very dangerous characteristics and we don’t know how to interact with it but being human, we can always make mistakes and we are not perfect so sometimes, these pathogens can somehow escape into the environment.

“At the end of the day, I want to congratulate you, I am sure you put a lot of work into it. When you quit your position in Germany, I knew you were going to recover and put your thoughts in pen and paper.

“We don’t have the luxury yet but we will and are glad we are at this event. We are counting a bit of what happened and how Lagos and Nigeria were able to come out of this with reasonably high scores.

“This is an important document that we must all read, lest we go into a stage of laxity.”