Yaba and Lagos Mainland Local Government Areas of Lagos now use AlertClinic

On October 12, 2017, AlertClinic was officially presented to the leaders at the Lagos Mainland LG community. We got full commitment from the Yaba local government chairman, Hon. Kayode Omiyale and his team.

There is a gap in the control of diseases in the community level and Hon Omiyale understood his local government was not left out but there are opportunities technology offers that respect the traditional framework and interests of the people living in his communities.

Aside the slums, it is hard to control the influx of immigrants entering Lagos through Jibowu, Iddo and Yaba parks. Lagos Mainland LGA, through these major bus terminus, is usually the first destination for immigrants from the South East and North of Nigeria.

Lagos Mainland is a mix of settlement of people from different parts of Nigeria. It has a major urban slum, and coincidentally the technology, medical research and educational hubs of Lagos and indeed Nigeria.

Engaging this community year round with messaging on endemic and emerging disease threats is often a nightmare. Health outreaches cost a lot and do not reach the entire community. Developing other forms of behaviour change communication materials to target the diverse sociocultural complexities is usually beyond the wallet of the department of health of an average LGA.

This Thursday, the local government now runs AlertClinic which is a combination of a mobile application, local government level call centre and offline agents (these agents — Alert Officers visit households that do not have access to any form of technology).

This is a method that brings messaging system that applies plain language (in multiple cultural languages) to support year round disease prevention at individual, household and community levels, with opportunity for local government level targeting. Lagos Mainland has now deployed a disease detection system that supports events based intelligence and quick reporting from households to Local Government Health Authorities.

We join the Lagos Mainland Local Government and its constituent wards authorities to promise response for all cases of fever and diarrhoeal diseases. These two are usually associated with most diseases of public health importance.

You can download AlertClinic on Google Playstore.

Share this with every member of the Lagos Mainland community including passive members who might not be a resident. Health is the unifying factor that connects us all and we have to take it important.