Coronavirus: Nigeria's health system is weak, we can't afford to get overwhelmed - NMA President

The President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Fancis Faduyile has called for more stringent measures to curb the spread of Coronavirus in the country.

Speaking on Channels Television on Thursday April 23, Faduyile stated that proactive measures are necessary at this time because the country cannot afford to get overwhelmed by Coronavirus cases with its weak health system.

The NMA President said;

“Nigeria, we must know, is not a very rich country; her patients are not very capable of getting all the necessary payment for health and the health system is weak.

“We cannot afford to get overwhelmed before we will start asking for whatever can be done for us to identify people who are positive, and for us to be able to quickly isolate them.

“The more we keep them in the community, the higher the risk of them infecting other members.”

Faduyile who revealed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) is yet to approve any kit for COVID-19 test, stated that every country has a way of developing home-grown methods to resolve its challenges. He also disclosed that the NMA is working with other medical bodies to validate some of the mass screening kits for COVID-19.

He added;

“Nowadays, we are having patients who are coming to the hospital and are not given adequate treatment because attending physicians are not sure of the status of the patients.

“This is where the mass screening test will come in and can help in resolving some of the issues that we are facing generally.

“It is important for us to stress that it is the testing that will help in the containment of this COVID-19 infection because until we test a large number of Nigerians and those who are positive are identified and possibly isolated, it is at that time that we know that we are going in the right direction to be able to stop the spread of COVID-19."

Though Faduyile averred that the total number of tests conducted so far in the country is lower than he expected, he however commended the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for improving its testing capacity to discover more infections in the country.