Fred Ezeh and Samuel Bello, Abuja
Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), has complained about the deplorable state of public medical laboratories in Nigeria, with more concerns about Ebonyi state.
The laboratory scientists were unhappy that Nigeria cannot boast of a state-of-the-art laboratories that has the capacity to produce accurate and precise test results for patients.
Spokesman of the umbrella body of medical laboratory scientists in Nigeria, Ifeanyichukwu Cajetan, told journalists at a press conference in Abuja, that the forthcoming international conference on global health security, will afford government and stakeholders the opportunity to extensively discuss the matter and possibly proffer superior solutions to the problem.
He also explained that the conference will have impressive participation of local and international stakeholders, experts and other partners to discuss epidemics like cholera, meningitis, yellow fever, lassa fever and several others.
He however took a swipe at the Ebonyi state governor, David Umahi, whom he said, has given little or no attention to public medical laboratories in the state, hence the deplorable state of laboratories in the state.
He said: “State of medical laboratories in the state is the worst when compared to others in other states. That could be possibly responsible for failed or inaccurate medical test outcome.
“The state has been, obviously, living in denial as regards the state of medical laboratories in the state. That could also be responsible for periodic outbreak of yellow fever and other deadly epidemics.”
He accused states government of uncommitted interest in setting up state-of-the-art medical laboratories that would be manned by well trained medical laboratory personnel.
He however appealed to state governors to invest in strengthening the capacity of medical laboratories in public health and clinical settings, to aid rapid detection and transparent reporting of disease outbreaks in their states.
He added: “The call for the accelerated support is very imperative. Nowadays, it will require not less than 36 hours for any infectious diseases to travel from one part of the world to another, hence the constant resurgence of emerging and re-emerging diseases.”