Experts brainstorm on infectious disease control initiative

Nigerian medical practitioners in the Diaspora are seeking solution to the burden of infectious diseases in Nigeria which have claimed many lives in recent times.
To this end, experts would be speaking at a Global Infections Disease Initiative Lecture holding in Lagos on July7th, 2017 at Oriental Hotel, Lagos.

The convener of the programme, Dr Folarin Olubowale who is practicing in the United States of America, said he would, through his non-governmental organisation, Global Infectious Diseases Initiative Incorporated, bring a network of US and Nigerian specialists in the field of infectious diseases to address the burden in Nigeria.

Olubowale who is a Diplomat American Board of Internal Medicine and Infectious diseases, said with several decades of experience in the United States, it was imperative to comeback home and share his experience with practitioners in the country which, he said, was a way of giving back to his motherland.

Speaking on the forthcoming event at a press briefing in Lagos recently, Managing Director, Complete Advantage Limited, Pastor Imeh Udo, organisers of the event, said the programme, the 10th edition in the US, will be holding for the first time in Nigeria.
The reason, Udo said, is to bring Nigerian health practitioners together with the aim of finding lasting solution to outbreaks of infectious diseases in the country that have assumed an epidemic dimension.

According to Udoh, the initiative is seeking to offer scholarship and train Nigerian doctors on new trend and findings in the field of infectious diseases as well as increase funding for the control of these diseases and then build a world class infectious disease centre in Nigeria.

It would be recalled that Nigeria, in recent times, has been battling with the outbreak of meningitis in some parts of the country which had claimed over 1400 lives. This is even as outbreak of Lassa fever is threatening some lives somewhere in Ondo state.

Udo noted that the event has always been successful in the US with over 500 participants in attendance, adding that of Nigeria will also feature lectures from renowned speakers focusing on awareness, collaboration and scholarship funding as well as developing a centre of excellence of infectious diseases in Nigeria.

According to her, speakers at the event would include Dr. Regis Nadin, a Haitan-American emergency medicine physician, Dr. Yoav Golan with Tufts Medical Centre and Professor of Clinical Microbiology and Deputy Vice Chancellor, Development Services, University of Lagos, Prof. Folashade Ogunsola in addition to Continuous Medical Education certificate that would be awarded to attendees in collaboration with the College of Medicine, University of Lagos.

In her remarks, a Public Health Physician with National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Yaba, Lagos, Dr. Udoka Chira, said: “We are all stakeholders as far as infectious diseases are concerned. We all have a role to play in tackling infectious diseases. We must be proactive and act fast and not allow these diseases such as malaria, meningitis, lasa fever among others, destroy the lives of our people.”