Public Health England and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control sign MoU on healthcare cooperation

BRITAIN'S Public Health England (PHE) and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Abuja aimed at strengthening international disease control across borders.

An executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in the UK, PHE has a mission to protect and improve the nation’s health and to address inequalities. Among the issues it holds public campaigns on include mental health, smoking, cancer, substance abuse and obesity.

Under the terms of the MoU, PHE will be helping Nigeria and four other countries to improve their International Health Regulations in disease prevention, detection and control. This partnership is coming just days after two patients were diagnosed and hospitalised for monkeypox in the UK.

Both patients were found to have travelled from Nigeria where there was an outbreak of the disease last year. This MoU is part of a £16m project funded by the British Department of Health to support the capacities of public health institutes in five countries including Nigeria, aimed at strengthening health security in the countries to reduce incidence of diseases trans-border crossing.

In Nigeria, the project will focus on disease surveillance, emergency preparedness and response, public health laboratory services as well as workforce development. PHE and NCDC are expected to collaborate in knowledge sharing, capacity building, laboratory upgrading aimed at achieving accreditation standards.

Paul Arkwright, the British high commissioner to Nigeria, said: "The United Kingdom recognises that we must work closely with other countries in our efforts to build strong and resilient health systems globally. We need strong collaboration among public health institutes to ensure global health security."

PHE chief executive Duncan Selbie, said the project is a partnership and invaluable opportunity for both countries to learn from each other. He added that by working together and sharing expertise, both countries would become stronger in tackling diseases and control and that is the aim of the project.

NCDC chief executive, Chikwe Ihekweazu said the agency is grateful to the British government for this opportunity which formalises and strengthens the existing relationship between NCDC and PHE. He added that his unit is looking forward to building on the cooperation for national and global health security.