Federal Ministry of Health
Federal Ministry of Health
AMLSN Bemoans Health System over Obsolete
Laboratories
Nigeria’s health indices ranking, adjudged to be among the worst
in the world, is due largely to its dysfunctional medical
laboratory infrastructure, coupled with its reprobate system and
governance, says Dr. Casmir Ifeanyi.
Dr. Ifeanyi, added that presently, throughout the 36 states of
the federation and the FCT, there are no medical laboratories with
capacity for the detection and diagnosis of agents of the mentioned
infectious diseases, except at the NCDC reference Laboratory in
Gudu, Abuja.
He spoke in Abuja at the maiden press briefing by the
Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) on
the International Conference on Global Health Security Agenda
scheduled to hold between 2nd and 5th of September, 2019.
The AMLSN National Publicity Secretary, said Nowadays, it will
require less than 36 hours for any infectious diseases to travel
from one point of the globe to another, hence the constant
resurgence of emerging and reemerging diseases in Nigeria.
He pointed out that Nigerians now live with the dilemma of
incessant outbreaks of cholera, meningitis, yellow fever, Lassa
fever, monkey pox and other hemorrhagic fevers including influenza
viral diseases.
“In addition to these is the non-communicable diseases
epidemics, including road traffic accidents (RTAs), resulting from
the ravaging challenge of urbanization and its associated lifestyle
and dietary challenges.
“It is regrettable that many states in Nigeria continue to
experience recurrent infectious diseases outbreak. This is because
these state governments generally are not committed to setting up
state of the art medical laboratories manned by well-trained
medical laboratory personnel,” he said.
Continuing, he added: “We urge governors of these states to
invest in strengthening the capacity of medical laboratories in
public health and clinical settings to aid in the rapid detection
and transparent reporting of diseases outbreaks in their states.
Such effort will help in the prevention and effective curtailing of
these menace.
“At the moment, Nigeria is considered the leading country in
open defecation; the problem of water sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
is reverberating. Now we are contending with insurgency and
terrorism. The question deserving immediate actionable response is:
How prepared are we if confronted with an accidental or intentional
release of dangerous pathogens and weaponized biological
agents?
“We have declared emergencies towards addressing some of these
issues but that alone is not enough. We must as a people prepare
and build capacity on how best to PREVENT, RESPOND, DETECT and
manage any out breaks”.
The AMLSN spokesperson, recalled that the Global Health Security
Agenda initiative was launched in February 2014 with a commitment
to bring together all nations to make the goal to advance a world
safe and secure from infectious disease threats become a national
priority.
He disclosed that the overall goal of their next month’s
conference is to promote GHSA as a veritable platform for
laboratory systems strengthening and facilitate the development of
actionable strategic approaches for a coordinated sector-wide
medical laboratory systems strengthening efforts from a systems
perspective that will support the development of a robust and
interconnected network of laboratories that are adequately
capacitated to rapidly detect, and transparently report disease
outbreaks on the continent.