…As AlertClinic debuts in Lagos

By Sola Ogundipe, Chioma Obinna & Monsur Olowoopejo

With the launch of AlertClinic in Lagos, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos,  Prof. Folashade Ogunsola  challenged Nigerians to arm themselves with information as no country survives without information on the burden and pattern of disease in its community.

According to Ogunsola -a Professor of medical microbiology – the 21st Century is embedded with new challenges and Nigerians must brace up to the challenge, especially as new diseases are emerging,  many that are zoonotic in origin and  not previously encountered.

Speaking at the official launch of AlertClinic, in Lagos, she said: “Nobody, not even developing countries, will be spared and we need to innovate around new mean of communication, management and prevention to protect us from the emerging infectious diseases and keep us proactive not defensive.

OFFICIAL LAUNCH: From Right – Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, Prof. Folashade Ogunsola; GM, CEO EpidAlert and Founder AlertClinic, Dr. Lawal Bakare and two others during the official launch of Alert Clinic in Lagos last week.

“As we have learnt from the Ebola outbreak, time is of essence and in weeks we can lose thousands of lives and markets can be shut down beyond recovery.”

The launch was carried out by EpidAlert in collaboration with the Lagos state government a as a platform to prevent, detect and respond to disease threats.

Ogunsola described the launch of AlertClinic as a push for public sector to a new normal, citizens towards new realities, and a new part to self efficacy in problem solving.

Ogunsola recalled that Ebola Alert was a home grown team of innovators, creators, and scientists who responded to the existential threat of Ebola, and are now taking a larger than life responsibility of joining the wider public sector in tackling communicable disease that have significant public health impact such as malaria, HIV and Lassa fever etc.

“If we can get every household in every community to connect with AlertClinic, Nigeria will have overcome a major hurdle using simple technology.

Throwing light into the berthing of the AlertClinic, the Chief Executive Officer, EpidAlert, Dr. Lawal Bakare said the aim was simply to support communities support themselves better.

“We were however also able to boast of some work done; part of such was the Establishment of EbolaAlert. We took the responsibility of ensuring sustenance of our work, and even went ahead to transform into an organisation with the intention of doing more. We discovered a fresh name and realised that bearing EpidAlert resonates better with what people expect of us.”

“Today is about AlertClinic. Our flagship initiative set to revolutionize disease prevention and detection in communities,” he added.

Bakare explained that the AlertClinic does allows the community to keep in touch with health risks wherever they are located and also provides early support to members of our communities whenever they are exposed to these risks. Noting that the patterns of disease risks vary from time to time and place to place; he added that “as we speak today we are recording pockets of Cholera outbreaks across Nigeria, some months ago we were battling meningitis. Who knows what is looming right now, another dry season is approaching, what should we expect and how should we prepare ourselves.”

He said with AlertClinic, they hope to support users and communities with the risk information from time to time, so they can be reminded of the simple practices required to mitigate the threats.

“People do not need to fear diseases; they need to just learn how to protect themselves against them. If we must know, there are billions of organisms sharing this world with us, our work is to ensure we are conscious of them and can protect ourselves from getting harmed.”

Noting that understanding these risks depend on data which is aggregated through Public Health Formation, he added that for every risk that goes unidentified, people are shortchanging their capacity to protect themselves against it now and in the future, hence, the bigger reason why AlertClinic was launched.

“With AlertClinic, we have packaged health information in a simple web and mobile application. If you open the application, you get regular updates on how to protect yourself, what to be vigilant of and what to do when you see anything, all disaggregated by local government areas. The risks faced in Lagos Mainland might not be the same as Surulere, despite how close they are.

Most importantly, when you open the application, you will see an alert button that allows all of us to report quickly through our trained alert officers. We have set this up in such a way that we hope to demonstrate better flow of information for better decision making by the authorities.

“We did not restrict this to our application, through social media and our progress web application, we also do the same. So you can follow @AlertClinic on facebook and twitter; and through www.AlertClinic.com people can get close to the system,” he disclosed.

He further disclosed that they have already registered over 2,000 households and 165 groups where they now share information offline, adding that through those offline channels, linkages would be established to vulnerable communities who do not appreciate technology.

Lagos, EpidAlert move to curb deaths from epidemic outbreak.