Lara Adejoro
Nigeria’s capacity to test for COVID-19 infection improved with the support from the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, key donors, in partnership with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, PUNCH Healthwise reports.
This was disclosed on Tuesday by the Laboratory Branch Chief of the U.S. CDC, McPaul Okoye at a media roundtable on the use of evidence-based decision-making for public health interventions in Abuja.
He said at the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria in 2020, only three laboratories had the capacity to test for COVID-19 infection.
Okoye, however, noted that the U.S. CDC in partnership with the NCDC and other key donors facilitated and provided the required technical assistance for the rapid establishment and activation of laboratories with capacity for COVID-19 testing.
According to him, the partnership helped Nigeria to record the most rapid expansion in laboratory capacity for COVID-19 testing which resulted in 163 laboratories with testing capacity.
He said, “The network of the established COVID-19 testing labs enabled the country to test more than five million samples for COVID-19 from inception to date.
“The COVID-19 pandemic created opportunities for the establishment of Genomic Sequence Based Surveillance under the leadership of the NCDC and through partnership with Africa CDC, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other partners. CDC continues to support the use of the capacity for integrated disease sequencing and reporting.
“Another major milestone in our partnership is the establishment of a Multiplex Bead Assay capacity at the National Reference Laboratory in Abuja. The MBA laboratory platform has the capacity for testing for multiple diseases at the same time using the same sample. This has made the implementation of multi-pathogen testing and integrated disease surveillance a lot easier for the country. Several surveillance testing programs led by the NCDC are currently ongoing in the MBA lab, using samples stored at the National Biorepository Center. Several scientific publications have also resulted through this effort.”
Okoye also revealed that the partnership led to the establishment of a network of molecular laboratories to provide essential molecular laboratory services for HIV, TB, and other diseases.
“We have also taken an even bolder step; working in coordination with other USG agencies – USAID, Department of Defence, and in partnership with the government, to establish a National Integrated Sample Referral System in 2018, the first of its kind in the country.
“The sample referral network serves to pick up samples from health facilities across the country, transport these samples to linked molecular laboratories and return test results. This system currently serves HIV, TB, COVID-19, and other diseases services.
“As part of the National Molecular Laboratory network, the U.S. CDC has also supported the upgrading of some of the laboratories in the network to serve as mega molecular labs. The mega labs have expanded their capacity to test high-volume samples and return results. The mega labs also have expanded laboratory services they support including hepatitis, COVID-19, HPV, and other diseases.
“As a result of the establishment of the laboratory network and sample referral system, we have continued to provide the laboratory services needed for the consistently growing number of patients currently on antiretroviral treatment across the country. As can be seen from the slide, out of the approximately 2 million patients on treatment, CDC currently supports almost 1.3 million, and these depend on the lab network for their lab testing for HIV viral load as well as other tests,” he said.
He also said the CDC has established a system that would prepare and mentor targeted laboratories in Nigeria for national and international accreditation based on International Standard Organisations specifications.
Also speaking, the Director of Laboratory Services at the NCDC, Dr. Olajumoke Babatunde said the partnership with the U.S. CDC has strengthened the public health system in the country.
“The U.S. CDC has supported in testing and implementing quality laboratory systems. The support has been enormous and the laboratory system has improved in the country,” he said.
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