Federal Govt Urges Swift Action Against Future Pandemics

The federal government has warned that future pandemics are inevitable, calling for urgent national preparedness to prevent widespread health, economic and security disruptions.

At a Public Health Symposium in Abuja, the coordinating minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, said growing evidence from global health research showed that the world is increasingly vulnerable to emerging infectious diseases driven by environmental changes, human behaviour and cross-species transmission.

Pate cited recent findings by researchers at the University of Sussex, who detected antibodies to multiple high-risk viruses, including influenza, Nipah, Ebola and coronaviruses in fruit bats sampled near a major city in North-Central Nigeria.

“That brought home the risk that we constantly face,” he said, stressing that pandemics do not appear suddenly but evolve from small, undetected spillover events.

He cautioned that Nigeria must abandon the pattern of reacting only after outbreaks occur, insisting that preparedness must be continuous, well-funded and treated as a national security priority.

“If we start investing when an outbreak begins, it’s already too late,” Pate said.

The minister highlighted the profound global impact of COVID-19, which triggered a 5.5 per cent contraction in world GDP and caused economic losses exceeding $15 trillion. He warned that with experts predicting another pandemic within five to eight years, Nigeria cannot afford complacency.

Pate outlined government efforts to strengthen readiness, including the establishment of the National Institute of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, expansion of surveillance systems, improved coordination through the One Health framework and ongoing training of nearly 79,000 healthcare workers.

He also emphasised the need to counter misinformation, improve community trust and invest in local manufacturing of critical medical supplies such as test kits, vaccines and PPEs.

“Preparedness requires years of investment, strong governance and public engagement,” he added.