Dr Jide Idris MBBS, MD, MPH, is the 3rd Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC)
The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Jide Idris, has cautioned that unreported cases of infectious diseases such as dengue fever, yellow fever, and others pose a greater threat to Nigerians than the diseases themselves.
Idris, who spoke during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday, expressed concern that many Nigerians mistake dengue fever for malaria due to similarities in symptoms, resulting in misdiagnosis and delays in treatment.
“But one thing that is important is that if people do not report cases, it is more dangerous for us as a people,” he said. “The more cases we report, the more attention we give to this.”
He noted that some of the recent cases of dengue fever were wrongly diagnosed as malaria, allowing the disease to spread unchecked for weeks before the authorities were alerted.
“Unfortunately, malaria, dengue fever, and yellow fever present similarly. That is why, again, do not self-medicate. Try to visit healthcare facilities where this diagnosis can be made,” he advised.
The NCDC boss also tasked tertiary health institutions across the country to report cases of infectious diseases promptly to enable a swift response from the government.
“We need to address our colleagues in the tertiary institutions. Once they make a diagnosis or detect such cases, they need to report through the state ministries of health, then to the NCDC, so that we can mount an appropriate response,” he said.
He lamented that in some instances, cases of dengue fever were left unreported for up to two or three weeks before the NCDC was informed.
“That’s the essence of this alert,” Idris stressed. “Let people know the kind of risk we’re facing. We need to let them know what to do and, more importantly, encourage reporting so we can act early to reduce deaths.”
The NCDC had, on July 18, issued a nationwide alert warning of the outbreak of multiple infectious diseases including cholera, dengue fever, Mpox, diphtheria, and yellow fever.
The alert, published on the agency’s website, warned that the growing spread of these diseases across the country required urgent national attention and a coordinated response from health stakeholders.
“The situation demands heightened vigilance and intensified response efforts from all stakeholders,” the agency said.