Why Infectious Disease Control Bill Should Wait, By Experts
MEDICAL
experts have provided reasons why the Infectious Disease Control Bill 2020, which has passed second reading at the Federal House of Representatives and another version, which passed first reading on the floor of the Senate, will have to wait till after the novel coronavirus ( COVID- 19) is contained.
Consultant public health physician/ epidemiologist, a leading member of the Lagos State COVID- 19 Response Team and former Chief Medical Director ( CMD), Lagos University Teaching Hospital ( LUTH) Idi- Araba, Prof. Akin Osibogun, told The Guardian: “What is the rush about the bill? Why not allow adequate input of stakeholders through a public hearing and invitation of memoranda? Why not strengthen local health authorities?”
President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria ( PSN), Mazi
Sam Ohuabunwa, told The Guardian: “To be true, I have no reason to question the intentions of the authors of the Bill. I do not believe the conspiracy theories. I believe they meant well.
Given the impact of COVID- 19 on the polity and the need to strengthen the hands of our Public Health officials to take actions to protect the citizens, we needed to empower them.
“However, I believe there were two lapses that may have elicited the furore. First is poor consultation. They seemed to have been too much in a hurry, thereby missing out the critical work of consulting critical stakeholders. Second is that there seemed not to be much rigour in drafting the bill, otherwise many of the constitutional breaches contained in the bill will have been eliminated.
“Thank God we have opportunity for public hearing. All the excesses in the bill will be removed while the essence of the bill would be preserved.”
To a consultant haematologist and Deputy Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital ( UNTH), Ituku Ozalla, Enugu State, Dr. Theresa Nwagha, “the normal legislative mill should be allowed to grind the proposed infectious control bill.”
In terms of timeliness, the haematologist said while the sponsors have made a case for urgency in reviewing the current Quarantine Act and other laws with respect to control of infectious disease in the country, it does not negate the fact that the bill should be of the highest quality in content and application, with a recognition of the Nigeria constitution and democratic disposition.
Nwagha expressed the opinion that the sponsors of the bill should have contacted NCDC before presenting it and its input accommodated, given that NCDC is a major stakeholder in protecting the health of Nigerians.
A professor of pharmacology and Pioneer Director General of the Nigerian Institute for Pharmaceutical Research ( NIPRD) Abuja, Prof. Charles Wambebe, said: “My first comment is the timing. We are in a pandemic. We have not contained the COVID- 19 pandemic yet. I will prefer we focus all our resources and energy on the best way to contain the virus.”
Wambebe, who is also the Chair of Product Research and Development for Africa and the President of International Biomedical Research for Africa, said that after a successful containment of the virus, we could explore other areas that will empower us to respond more effectively in future to any other pandemic.
A biomedical technologist at the Department of Biomedical Technology, Federal University of Technology Owerri ( FUTO), Imo State, Dr. Chidi Osuagwu, said the Infectious Disease Bill should not be a priority at this time due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Osuagwu said it appears seriously suspicious, as it tallies too much with the strategic objectives of international vaccinist- hegemonists, who aspire to control the world through vaccines.