By Sonia Odigie
The United States (U.S.) government on Friday April 12, 2024 at the National Reference Laboratory Abuja, donated laboratory equipment and commodities to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) as part of the U.S Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ongoing support of emergency responses to outbreaks.
Among the donated items are Biosafety cabinets, Sample collection materials, Other essential laboratory commodities to ensure the quality and high outputs of Nigeria’s labs, and Large amounts of personal protective equipment to help keep laboratory workers safe.
NCDC Director General, Dr Jide Idris, speaking at the event said: “The donation made is definitely going to enhance our capabilities in diagnosing, detecting disease of interest and also to make things happen in this country with respect to health security. Our mandate is to health security and our recent road map, the last portion is forging partnerships and todays event is just a testament to the partnership.”
According to the Director General, “the President has placed health sector higher than what it used to be, health is the forefront which has been complimented by his appointment by the African union (AU) as the ambassador for health work force in Africa.”
Idris stated that the “health system is a very expensive system and the government of a country cannot handle everything and that is why we require this kind of collaboration both internationally, nationally and sub nationally to boost each other’s capabilities.
“If we continue at this rate, all the things we want to do in the context of health security in this country will be better achieved and so, what the U.S has donated today will be judiciously used in a way we would do better than planned. We hope to continue this partnership In future.”
Speaking also at the event, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires, David J. Greene, who was represented by Farah Husain, the Programme Director said: “The U.S. Center for Disease Control & Prevention and the NCDC partnership is proud to donate equipment and supplies to address the shared challenges of disease outbreaks to support emergency response laboratory activities.”
Husain added: “Nigeria is currently facing several on going disease outbreaks including Lasa fever, Meningitis and other diseases, this donations which include Bio safety cabinet, sample collector , personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essential laboratory commodities will help save life’s, increase the quality of Nigerian laboratories and protect the safety of laboratory workers at national and sub national levels.”