Lassa Fever Resurgence: Why FG Must Build Laboratory Capacity To Provide Diagnosis- Dr. Casmir Ifeanyi

Photo: allfrica

The need for the Federal Government of Nigeria to build capacity in the Medical Laboratories across the country has being emphasized.

The National Publicity Secretary, Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN ), Dr. Ifeanyi Casmir made the call while featuring as a guest on Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria Network program: ‘Issues of The Moment’.

According to Dr. Casmir:

The Lassa Fever mortality rate is 17.5% and the country’s capacity to do laboratory confirmed diagnosis hovered around 50- 57% as at the last four years which simply means part of the reasons why we have not being able to place a plug on the disease is because we don’t have the laboratory capacity.

Dr. Casmir charged the Federal Government to build capacity on the Medical Laboratories in the country to atleast one per the 6 geographical zones, decrying a situation where only two Medical Laboratories in Nigeria are equipped relatively to do confirmatory diagnosis of Lassa Fever– the specialist hospital Irrua and Lagos virology laboratory, LUTH.

Speaking further, the image maker said:

If we can’t really cascade the capacity to all the states, there’s actually no reason why states where this outbreak has become perennial can’t build laboratory capacity to provide diagnosis.

He blamed the recent outbreak in some states of the country on poor community hygiene, poverty, ignorance and dysfunctional health system.