Ebola: FG Inaugurates Apex Medical Laboratory

The Minister of State for Health, Dr Haliru Alhassan, on Tuesday inaugurated the Defence Reference Laboratory (DRL) extension building at the Mogadishu Cantonment in Abuja. 

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NAN reports that the minister at the occasion also directed all laboratory centres to come up with infectious preventive measures against the deadly Ebola virus.

According to him, the directive became necessary since it has been discovered that health personnel were at high risk while treating Ebola patients. He said the development made it imperative to look at both the curative and preventive strategies in order to contain the disease.

Alhassan stated that the inauguration of the DRL was timely because the country was grappling with HIV/AIDs scourge and the Ebola emergency. He assured that the Federal Ministry of Health would partner the military authorities towards finding a lasting solution to the Ebola challenge.

Speaking also at the event the Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro described the facility as the apex medical laboratory of the military, and expressed optimism that if the military was encouraged they would do more in the area of research.

He said the military was capable of coming out with drugs that would checkmate most medical challenges, adding that the facility would serve as bedrock for advancement of research into the control of infectious and emerging diseases such as Ebola.

Obanikoro, who stated that there will be no need to run overseas all the time for medical attention if military research was supported also revealed that the speedy completion of the laboratory underscored federal government commitment to invest in specialised disease detection.

The minister revealed that the DRL was established in partnership with the United States Department of Defence aimed at building national capacity for laboratory diagnostic research in Nigeria.

“Naturally, there is no better place to make such an investment than the military. I am optimistic that that the frontiers of research would be further extended beyond the military to the civilian establishments like teaching hospitals and the academia” he said.

Responding, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, remarked that the referral laboratory would boost Nigerian armed forces medical requirements, especially in this period when the nation’s troops are deployed in response to national security challenges.

He said the development shows government’s commitment towards the welfare of troops in line with the President’s agenda to reposition the armed forces.

However, Nigeria is the fourth West African country to have experienced Ebola outbreak in this year. The virus was reportedly brought to the country by a US-Liberian citizen, Patrick Sawyer, who was infected with the virus when he came to Lagos, the commercial hub of Nigeria, on July 20, 2014. Although he had reportedly died five days after, it was also reported that eight people, who came in contact with him, have been diagnosed with Ebola, and two have died.

EVD has so far killed over 932 people in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria since March 2014.  More than 1,700 people have reportedly contracted it according to World Health Organization report.