As the world continue to battle to overcome the ravaging impact of the coronavirus with over 1.5 million total confirmed cases and over 89,000 deaths recorded globally, a Medical Laboratory Scientist, a renowned Virologist, Public Health Epidemiologist and Lecturer with Nasarawa State University Keffi (NSUK) Dr. Ishaku Akyala has called for the use of Information Technology to enhance contact tracing in order to prevent and contain the possible fatal tide of the virus.

Dr. Akyala Ishaku also urged the people to adhere strictly to all safety, preventive and precautionary measures as well as government directives in order to reduce exposure and prevention of the virus.

He admonished the people to stay at home, avoid unnecessary movements/travel, wash hands regularly using soap with running water or use alcohol-based hand sanitizers, avoid crowded place, practice social distancing, cough into bended elbow or use tissue paper which must be disposed properly/immediately, eat eggs, drink lot of water, eat lot of fruits/vegetables rich in zinc and vitamin C, maintain good personal/respiratory hygiene and report suspected case to the nearest health facility in their localities.

His tips for enhanced contact tracing are contain below:

USE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE CONTACT TRACING: MATTER ARISING

As cases begin to rise with over 5000 contacts to be trace, I have marshalled and catalogue the following submissions to Federal Ministry of Health and NCDC yesterday via mail.

1. Ask airlines that came into Nigeria from high risk countries in the last 7 weeks to give you all the profile of passengers in their database. Use Passengers passport details which has addresses and phone number within the Immigration database. Use GPS and GIS to track passengers movement. This will enable a robust contact tracing. Once they are gotten, they should be transferred to isolation centres immediately.
2. All Medical team that arrived Nigeria from China must be quarantined for 14days and be subjected to thorough review afterward which is part of our National protocol.
3. All Medical devices and supplys from China must be subjected to thorough validation by agencies such as NAFDAC and SON. Vaccines, drugs and laboratory equipment and reagents should also be subjected to high profile validation. You can employ voluntary services of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) and Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) to this regards.
4. To flatten the Epid-curve, the Presidential Taskforce should have an interface (Meeting) with all Medical associations in Nigeria in order to chant for a robust strategise to combat this PANDEMIC. We have no time at our disposal.
5. Get a team of Health Economists to provide guidelines on how resources needs to be spend in this Season.

I believe, you will have a review of all your strategies and protocols for optimisation.

Thanks and warm regards

From Akyala Ishaku Ph.D

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COVID-19: Renown Virologist, Dr. Ishaku Akyala Outline Tips to Enhance Contact Tracing