By Abujah Racheal
Abuja – The Federal Ministry of Health says Nigeria’s response to Coronavirus (COVID-19) is in adherence with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) guidelines for the management of patients, who test positive for the virus.
Dr Adebimpe Adebiyi, Director (Hospital Services) in the ministry, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Sunday in Abuja, that scientists were working on a global effort to find the best drugs to treat the virus.
Adebiyi said that while there was no cure for COVID-19 at this time, plans were in place to harness herbal medicine for the clinical management of COVID-19 patients in the country.
“The general response to the pandemic so far, in lieu of a vaccine, has been to effectively manage the growing number of cases in the country.
“While Nigeria has sadly recorded 128 deaths, resulting in a fatality rate of three per cent it has 745 discharged cases and a discharge rate of 17 per cent,” she stressed.
The director said that this was a result of effective coordination between the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC ) and states to bolster their preparedness and response activities through the deployment of teams to support the capacity of health workers trained in various states.
She explained that the support given by the ministry of health, and NCDC to states included guidelines and procedures to support the work of health care workers managing patients.
Adebiyi also explained that patients, who escaped from the isolation centres could possibly have done so due to other medical conditions that they had prior to when they tested positive for COVID-19.
She, however, stressed the need to incorporate mental health support in the ongoing case management for COVID-19 patients, stressing the consequences that could arise if not properly addressed.
Adebiyi said that as Nigerians adhered to measures put in place to avoid the virus affecting even more Nigerians, the increasing number of isolation centres in the country was also part of government’s strategy to avoid many citizens getting infected.
She added that as more information was determined about the virus, strategies for management of cases would be adapted.
“This is in line with the decision of the National Council on Health to decentralise the accreditation of isolation centres at the state level, to make it possible for teams in various states to constitute their own accreditation committees, while remaining regulated at the national level.
“This is in the hope that with better state management of the response, there will be a stronger and hopefully long-lasting management of the pandemic in Nigeria,”’ she stated.
(NAN)
