Nkechinyere Ewa-Okpara
A Data-Driven Respiratory Disease Equity Project has been flagged off in Ebonyi State, targeting 1000 patients for free diagnosis and treatment in the state.
Jesse Uneke, the Vice Chancellor of David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences (DUFUHS), Uburu, made this known in Abakaliki on Wednesday.
Uneke a professor in health policy who doubles as the State Lead and Principal Investigator of the groundbreaking project aimed at improving equity in respiratory disease outcomes across five African countries, highlighted the alarming prevalence of respiratory illnesses in the region.
The targeted countries for the four-year project, according to him, include Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and South Africa.
Speaking at the Institute of Child Health (ICH), at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, (AE-FUTHA), during the formal launch of the initiative in Ebonyi State, Professor Uneke emphasized the urgent need for enhanced healthcare interventions in tackling respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia (in both children and adults), asthma, and lung cancer.,
Uneke described respiratory illnesses as a major cause of both acute and chronic morbidity and mortality in Africa.
“It is well established that respiratory diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia in children and adults, asthma, and lung cancer, are all prevalent in Nigeria as in the remaining four target African countries.
“Although these respiratory diseases cause a very large burden of both acute and chronic morbidity, as well as mortality in Nigeria, there is limited health systems’ capacity for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
“Furthermore, there are large inequities in the outcomes of these diseases. They are worse among the poor, who do not have access to affordable and quality healthcare”, he said.
He noted that the project will provide some critical equipment for the use in the detection/diagnosis of some respiratory diseases and also provide free treatment to up to 1000 patients across the six target health facilities in Ebonyi State within a four-year duration of the project.
“In this effort, we will harness a large body of work that has already been invested in the development, validation, implementation and training for the use of the tools such as Equitable Impact Sensitive Tool (EQUIST) and the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) method.
“We will also pilot and validate the “Pathways to Survival” (PATHS) tool, a novel tool based on decision science, that identifies key bottlenecks in intervention delivery.
“The goal is to achieve demonstrable and equitable reductions in morbidity and mortality from respiratory diseases through improvements in interventions and policies derived from data-driven tools”,.