The Role of Travel Medicine in Managing Future Pandemics:Lessons Learned from Global Infectious Disease Outbreaks

In an increasingly interconnected world shaped by globalization, international travel plays a significant role in facilitating the spread of infectious diseases. Travel medicine plays a vital role in preventing and controlling the spread of infectious diseases. This specialized field focuses on providing pre-travel advice, administering necessary vaccinations, promoting preventive measures during travel, and offering post-travel care. Risk assessment is essential to evaluate potential hazards associated with specific destinations. Factors such as disease prevalence, healthcare infrastructure, vaccination requirements, environmental, as well as cultural influences are considered. Through this process, the risks can be effectively managed by formulating appropriate strategies. Preventive measures are crucial to minimize the transmission of infectious diseases during travel. These include compulsory vaccinations based on destination-specific requirements, recommended travel restrictions when necessary, and quarantine protocols for individuals exhibiting symptoms. Enhanced surveillance efforts combined with promotion of personal hygiene practices aid further prevention. Educating travelers about safe food handling practices also serves as an effective measure against many infections. Effective pandemic management requires collaboration among countries and international organizations. Travel medicine Professionals work alongside public health authorities to provide accurate information, vaccine administration services, and increased awareness about preventive measures. This collaborative effort facilitates timely response mechanisms ensuring global protection from emerging threats like pandemics

A review on the state of abattoirs in Nigeria during COVID-19 pandemic era: Potential threats and public health interventions

The Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging zoonotic disease with global impact. Different intervention measures have been rolled out to flatten the curve, however the unhygienic conditions of abattoirs in Nigeria may be a perfect breeding ground for the novel coronavirus, hence could pose a threat to public health. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first reported among individuals who had either visited or had consumed food sold at the wet animal market in Wuhan, megacity of China in late December, 2019. The outbreak compelled China authority to close down all the wet animal markets in the Hubei province in an attempt to curb zoonotic transmission of the virus. Due to the unhygienic conditions of Nigerian abattoirs, butchers are more likely to come in contact with contaminated objects or surfaces and when they do, they may unknowingly infect themselves by touching their noses, mouth, or eyes with contaminated hands. Consequently, the virus could find its way into the respiratory tract to initiates an infection. Worst still, the lack of social distancing in the abattoirs can promote local transmission amongst butchers if some of them are infected and remain asymptomatic. These asymptomatic individuals can constitute a potential reservoir in the propagation and transmission of the virus within the abattoirs and in the community if they are not identified, isolated and treated. The current pandemic poses a threat of zoonotic transmission, hence, there is need for the Federal Government of Nigeria to make concerted effort in restoring sanitary in the abattoirs in order to forestall an outbreak of a virus that may be more deadly than SARS-CoV-2. This review therefore seeks to evaluate the growing concerns of the unhygienic conditions of abattoirs in Nigeria amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the threats it poses to public health and the possible way forward

The Role of International Flights in Covid-19 Pandemic: Global, Africa and Nigeria’s Narratives

The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the novel Coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on the 11th of March, 2020. International flights from the epicenter of the outbreak (Wuhan, China) were identified as a key driver of the current pandemic. About 231 international flights were reported to have left China to other parts of the world in January, 2020. Exposed individuals who travelled from the epicenter of the outbreak to different countries by international flights for one reason or the other were responsible for exporting the virus to their various country of destination. In order to prevent the spread of the virus, many countries took some strict measures including the closing down of their airports and air spaces to international flights from high risk countries as the number of confirmed cases and fatalities began to rise. Lack of activities resulted to huge financial losses in the aviation industry with many airline operators laying off their workers. In other to ameliorate the negative impacts of the pandemic on the global economy after several months of lockdown; many countries have now re-open their airports and resume international flight operations; without recourse to the possibility of a second wave. In the absence of strict adherence to the COVID-19 safety guidelines, accidental exposure to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) can occur at any point: pre-boarding, boarding or post-boarding. SARS-CoV-2 may be contracted from infected airport workers, cabin crew members or passengers, whether they show symptoms or not. In view of the renewed upsurge of the virus globally, the need to optimize disease surveillance system at various international airports across the globe, as well as ensuring strict compliance to the international travel advisory cannot be overemphasized. This paper seeks to examine the role of international flights in COVID-19 pandemic; including the associated impacts, risk of exposure and guidelines for safe flight operations in the aviation industry amidst the pandemic