The Nigerian Center for Disease Control has launched an online course to enlighten people on the COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
The course was created by the Infection Prevention and Control Unit of the NCDC, with technical assistance from eHealth Africa.
The course will document important information that can help the NCDC monitor IPC compliance across health facilities at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. The monitoring will be done across public, private, and faith-based facilities in the country.
The course comes at no cost and can be registered for here. Measures to prevent and control infection are a part of the NCDC’s response to COVID-19 in Nigeria and is critical for strengthening national health security.
It features modules on standard and transmission-based precautions, use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other important aspects of infection control in healthcare. The NCDC will award a certificate of participation to participants at the end of the course.
Part of the need for the course stems from the need to also protect the frontline healthcare workers in the country. Since the first case was recorded, about 812 health workers have been infected in Nigeria while 230,000 health workers have been infected globally.
Efforts are being made to increase the capacity of the frontline workers, including the training of about 17,436 health workers in IPC as well as the provision of personal protective equipment.
All the efforts are geared towards reducing the risk of infection for health workers. To provide the PPEs, the NCDC works in collaboration with the Departments of Hospital Services and Food and Drugs of the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH)
As of July 6, there are a total of 29,286 COVID-19 cases in the country. 11,828 infected persons have recovered and been discharged while 654 people have died as a result of complications from the coronavirus.
Quality content from the online course that can sensitize people about the coronavirus will help people make better decisions daily, and ultimately reduce the spread of the virus.
