CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE SURVEILLANCE AND CONTROL IN THE NIGERIA
Abstract
While outbreaks of infectious diseases have long presented a public health challenge, especially in developing countries like Nigeria; within recent years, the frequency of such outbreaks has risen tremendously. Furthermore, with the recent outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola virus disease and other epidemic prone diseases in Nigeria demanding immediate public health action, there is a need to strengthen the existing notifiable disease surveillance and notification system with increased clinicians’ involvement in timely reporting of notifiable diseases to designated public health authorities for prompt public health action. Hence, this paper provides the opportunity to increase awareness among clinicians on the importance of immediate reporting of notifiable diseases and intensify engagement of clinicians in disease notification activities by describing various notifiable diseases in Nigeria using their surveillance case definition, outlines the reporting channel for notifying these diseases and highlights the roles of clinicians in the current disease surveillance and notification network for early disease outbreak detection and public health response in Nigeria.
INTRODUCTION
Disease surveillance is the continuous scrutiny of occurrence of diseases and health-related events to enable prompt intervention for the control of diseases.1 It involves the ongoing systematic collection, collation, analysis and interpretation of data on disease occurrence and public health related events and dissemination of the information obtained from such data for prompt public health action.2,3,4,5,6 However disease notification involves the official and timely reporting of the occurrence of specific diseases and conditions to designated public health authorities by clinicians and other health personnel for action using designated reporting tools.7 Disease notification is an important source of data collection for an effective and efficient disease surveillance system.7 Disease surveillance and notification (DSN) have been recognized as an effective strategy for the prevention and control of diseases most especially epidemic prone diseases. It is crucial to note that disease outbreak do not give notice before its occurrence neither do they respect the borders of nations. When they eventually occur, they are likely to spread like wildfire and often resulting in high morbidity and case fatality rate with consequent economic impact. An effective and efficient disease surveillance and notification system allows early detection of disease outbreaks that will prompt intervention for the reduction of morbidity and mortality that may result from the epidemics of these infectious diseases.8 Levels of disease surveillance and notification can be individual, local, national and international. National disease surveillance and notification system often depends on effective district/Local Government Area (LGA) disease monitoring and control mechanism with the clinicians’ actively involved.1,8
In Nigeria, surveillance and notification of diseases involve the immediate notification of epidemic prone diseases, diseases targeted for elimination and eradication and monthly notification of other diseases of public health importance.2 For a disease surveillance and notification system at the district/LGA level to be functional and effective in early detection of epidemic-prone diseases, clinicians remain indispensable to effective reporting because they can detect unusual disease manifestations and conditions that rely on clinical signs not related to laboratory testing, clusters of illnesses through patient interview and clinical judgments.9
Presently in Nigeria, the collection, collation, analysis and interpretation of disease-related data in public health institutions are often incomplete and untimely partly because of poor awareness among clinicians of the importance of their role in disease surveillance and notification activities for the prevention of infectious disease outbreaks.7 Many outbreaks which have occurred in Nigeria over the years have been attributed to clinicians either not reporting or reporting late when the index cases of epidemic prone diseases present in the various health institutions across the country.10 From previous studies on disease surveillance and notification, it is pertinent to note that failure in mandatory reporting of notifiable diseases among clinicians have been attributed to lack of awareness of the existence of a surveillance network for notifiable diseases including the requirement for reporting, which diseases are notifiable, how, when and to whom reporting should be done.7,11,12,13
This paper therefore seeks to identify opportunities for an increased engagement of clinicians in disease notification activities by describing various notifiable diseases in Nigeria using their surveillance case definitions, outlining the reporting channel for notifiable diseases and highlighting the roles of clinicians in the current disease surveillance and notification network for early disease outbreak detection and public health response in Nigeria.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
1.2 Statement of the problem
1.3 Purpose of the study
1.4 Significance of study
1.5 Research questions
1.6 Scope of study
1.7 Limitation of study
1.8 Definition of terms
Chapter Two
2.0 Literature Review
Chapter Three
3.0 Methodology
Chapter Four
4.0 Data Analysis
Chapter Five
5.0 Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations
References Questionnaires
