HUNDREDS of medical science laboratories in the country would benefit from a foreign grant to upgrade local laboratories to World Health Organisation (WHO) standard, the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) Director General (DG), Prof. Innocent Ujah has said.The grant came from the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI), a network of national agencies that provides science-based leadership, expertise and coordination for countries' public health activities.The grant-agreement signed at the weekend by the DG is for in-country capacity building of laboratory physicians (pathologists), medical laboratory scientists involving Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) and Medical Laboratory Sciences Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) for improved quality standards and to boost accreditation to attain WHO qualification.Speaking with reporters in Lagos at the weekend, Ujah said that the grant was one of the best things to happen to medical science and research in the country, where less than 10 of over 5,000 laboratories currently meet the WHO standard, and only NIMR's human virology laboratory is International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)-certified.Noting that the international public health institute has been gracious to Nigeria, he said that the last IANPHI international conference in Helsinki, Finland, saw to the election and admission of both the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Nigerian Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) as members of the global public institute, after NIMR.Ujah said that it was a giant feat for the country, as she made history being the first country to have three institutes represented at IANPHI.'One of the benefits derivable from our fellowship is the grant we are getting now. IANPHI will support us in the exchange of expertise, ideas and get support to strengthen both the individual and institutional capacities. We want to have our laboratory results reproducible, to also enhance the quality of care in the country,' he said.Ujah explained that the first thing to do was to train the trainers. 'Instead of bringing people from Atlanta Georgia, we are training the master trainers, because there is no way we can train all the laboratory scientists in the country. Then they will move down to the six geo-political zones of the country to do the step-down training.'Apart from that, we will also then go to the selected laboratories and see how we can support them to upgrade and improve the quality. Only when standard is improved that we can get the accreditation.'The essence is not to find fault but see how to improve what they do for the benefit of our people. We belief that with the momentum now, many more laboratories will be accredited provided they meet the standard.'Considering the central role of the private sector, Ujah added that both the public and the private sector physicians and the laboratory scientists would benefit.
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