New Telegraph

‘Comply with COVID-19 protocol despite vaccination’

Dr. Babatunde Adewale is the Deputy Director and Head, Public Health and Epidemiology Department at the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR). In this interview with APPOLONIA ADEYEMI, he speaks on the peculiarities of persons with co-morbidities and their severe impact on COVID-19 infection, difference between Coronavirus and malaria symptoms, the need to observe nonpharmaceutical protocols (NPP) to curb infections despite getting vaccination, among others. Excerpts:

Sometimes, when you tell someone about coronavirus, they ask you to show them one person who has died from the virus. What is your take on this?

People are actually dying, but you see, among the masses, they may not know that it is coronavirus. But, they may think it was malaria or typhoid fever. There was this newspaper publication about a religious gathering that after they gathered; they came up with the infection. It is true, because I met some of them. When I met them, a couple of them said they had malaria. But the actual thing might not be malaria. It could be a coronavirus infection. So, I asked them if they had gone for the COVID-19 test, and they responded, no. But, they thought it was malaria. So, a number of people would have the infection and due to their strong immune status, they might survive it. But, that does not mean that it is not COVID-19. However, according to their basic knowledge, they might tell you it is malaria.

How can we tell the difference between COVID-19 and malaria infection?

COVID-19 viral infection manifests similar symptoms to malaria. But it becomes more severe with people having co-morbid situations. This includes individuals who are diabetic, asthmatic and hypertensive. But, for other people not having co-morbid cases, it might just look like malaria to them. They would be sneezing, running nose, suffering cold, etc. You know, these are just the usual malaria symptoms. But, in some instances if you look a little more closely, it may be a little more severe than the usual malaria. It becomes very severe among people with comorbidity. We see such individuals having difficulty breathing, experiencing loss of appetite and so on. Comorbidity means more than one disease or condition is present in the same person at the same time. Conditions described as comorbidities are often chronic or long-term conditions.

Diabetes link with COVID-19

Such a person with co-morbidity has his immune status compromised already. So COVID- 19 comes down heavily with such individuals with compromised immunity.

What should be done differently in view of the high infection rate?

A lot of Nigerians are not taking proper precautions. They go to crowded parties without a nose mask, sanitiser or hand washing. So, individuals should exercise the precautionary measures. Do not go to crowded places. Observe social distancing, wash your hands regularly and use your sanitisers. When you do all of these, the rate of infection and mortality would go down and gradually things would get back to normal.

However, because a lot of people do not believe that there is coronavirus. They still organise parties with 200,000 people or 500,000 people in attendance. Even with the rollout of vaccination, there should be strict compliance of non-pharmaceutical protocol (NPP).

Is there any other new thing Nigerians should do apart from the regular wearing of face masks?

Well, I would not really say.

Except that you try as much as possible to ensure your immunity stays strong. Maybe you could try taking vitamin C. This is because your immunity is what is involved in fighting diseases. Avoid things that could further endanger your life or make you pre-disposed to infection.

Is there anything the government has done that they need to do differently?

I don’t think this is about the government. It is just about the masses. Nigerians do not believe that there is coronavirus here. They do not observe the precautionary measures. So if Nigerians do what the government has asked them to do, I think things would be better. For instance, the Federal Government shortly after the lockdown was eased, said that people from level 12 downward should not come to work. The essence of this was to avoid overcrowding. Those are the things the government could do and which they are already doing. The government has placed a ban on gatherings as well as restricting a certain number of individuals present. I know that at a particular time, the government also placed a ban on social gatherings, religious gatherings, etc. Those are the things that the government does, but it is just for the masses to obey and do what they have been asked to do. With that we would be helping ourselves a lot. But, when we do not obey government regulations and things like that, there is little or nothing the government can do. The government is doing what it should do, but it is left for the masses to do the right things.

In view of whether it is the new strain or not, how prepared is the country when it comes to the increasing number of people who are getting infected?

I can only talk about my institute in terms of preparation for whether an upsurge or what we have. In the last three months of 2020, the institute came up with a number of innovations. We have Sars-CoV-2 isothermal molecular assay (SIMA) which can help the diagnosis to be 40 minutes, instead of the usual –three to six hours of real-time polymerise chain reaction (PCR). SIMA reduces the time spent in diagnosis. These are some of the things the institute has done. Apart from that, the institute currently has a new machine that can sequence a virus, which can tell whether there is a new strain or not. It is a new machine that has just been acquired. These are some of the things that the institute is doing. The upsurge we have now may not be as a result of the strain we have. It would be as a result of individuals not taking the necessary precautionary measures.

Read Previous

World Health Day: PSN tackles inequities in care services

Read Next

Broadband: Expert canvasses govt support for ISP’s

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *