The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC) has commissioned the newly renovated molecular laboratory at Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Makurdi in Benue State.
The lab was renovated with funds and technical assistance from the U.S. CDC via the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
The commissioning was conducted by the Acting Country Director Suzanne Theroux and Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State.
A statement by the U.S. Mission in Nigeria on Thursday said that “using state-of-the-art medical laboratory technology, the lab can now conduct HIV viral load and early infant diagnosis testing, as well as molecular tests for other priority diseases including tuberculosis, COVID-19, hepatitis, and HPV.”
In her remarks, Ms. Theroux stated that FMC Makurdi is now a model lab for the rest of Nigeria and commended their focus on quality management.
She added that “the high-quality data provided by the lab not only helps facilitate integrated service delivery for patients at healthcare facilities but also strengthens the state’s capacity to detect and quickly respond to disease threats.”
The statement adds that “FMC Makurdi currently tests more than 200,000 patient samples annually, making it one of the top molecular labs in the PEPFAR-Global Fund-supported molecular lab network.”