‘We Are Strategically Deepening Preparedness For Biosecurity Threats’

Lagos State government has said the just concluded intensive five-day State Action Plan for Health Security (SAPHS) development workshop was aimed at deepening preparedness for biosecurity threats strategically.

In his address at the workshop, the state’s commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, declared that Lagos must remain in a permanent state of readiness for emerging biological threats.

The workshop, held at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry brought together health stakeholders from Lagos and experts from NCDC, US CDC, Research Triangle Institute (RTI), Resolve to Save Lives, and other partners to craft Lagos’ five-year health security roadmap.

Abayomi said Lagos had learned difficult but vital lessons from Ebola, COVID-19 and the most recent cholera outbreak.

According to him, the state’s experience proved that strong biosecurity cannot exist without a resilient health system capable of responding decisively to threats.

He emphasised that crisis communication and confidence are crucial in public health emergencies, recalling how government leadership during COVID-19 helped prevent panic and civil unrest.

He noted that once confidence breaks, outbreaks become secondary to social disorder, stressing the need for coordination among MDAs during emergencies.

The commissioner warned that high-consequence pathogens, especially “Pathogen X”, remain a global concern, adding that many have no treatment or vaccine in the early stages.

He said the world still struggles to distinguish between natural outbreaks and potential biological weapon threats, underscoring the need for Lagos to strengthen containment laboratories and emergency response systems.

Abayomi added that Lagos must invest continuously in surveillance, oxygen capacity, public health infrastructure, and workforce retention, saying readiness is expensive but unavoidable.

“You cannot train your army during war; you train during peace,” he said, assuring participants that Lagos will continue building a unified health security shield for its citizens.

In his address, the deputy director of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Dr. Olubunmi Olofa, said the agency was pleased with Lagos’ commitment to translating its Joint External Evaluation (JEE) findings into a concrete five-year SAPHS.

He recalled that Lagos scored 36 during the 2024 JEE assessment, describing it not as a failure but a true reflection of the state’s capacity at the time.