23rd January, 2020
The Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), has organised a special training toward strengthening the country’s capacity to prevent and respond to diseases outbreak.
The four-day capacity building training holding in Abuja is being held in collaboration with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
“The training is focused on Laboratory Quality Management Systems for laboratory specialists,” IHVN programme manager Bimpe Balogun said on Thursday.
Balogun said that the training would look into the management and technical requirements of ISO 15189:2012 modules, among other areas.
“We shall also look into improving the laboratory system to ensure that results are reliable, accurate and reproducible. Hopefully, they can get national or international accreditation and that way, their results will be comparable to any laboratory in the world,” she said.
She added that with adequate skills and knowledge, laboratory scientists could avoid wrong diagnosis to prevent disease outbreaks.
“With adequate skills, infected clients can be easily identified and quick intervention made to avoid the spread of infection by more people,” she said.
NCDC Laboratory Network Advisor, Mrs Celestina Obiekea, while addressing participants, advised them to “listen and make use of the opportunity so that you can put to practice what you learn”.
Participants were drawn from the National Reference Laboratory, Gaduwa, Central Public Health Laboratory, Lagos, Maitama District Hospital and University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin.
Others came from the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, and Yusuf DanTsoho Specialist Hospital, Kaduna.
Mrs Ogbazi Josephine, Head of Quality Management from Central Public Health Laboratory, Lagos, in a remark, said that the training had improved her understanding of quality management.
“If quality management practices are followed, we shall definitely have accurate and timely results for planning so that our people will be safer.”
Dr Chukwubike Chinedu from the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, another participant, said that the training was coming at the right time “especially for us, being a new laboratory for yellow fever diagnosis in the country”.
“We need to see what others are doing and also to be able to produce quality result that will be integrated into the network,” he said.
The training is part of activities of the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), and the RESOLVE to Save Lives (RTSL), an initiative of vital strategic groups working with governments in low and middle-income countries to improve capacity and preparedness to help the world prevent epidemics.
IHVN is implementing the RESOLVE sub-grant, spearheaded by Principal Investigator and Executive Director, Laboratory Services, Prof. Alash’le Abimiku, to facilitate capacity reinforcement activities that will strengthen and expand existing national and regional laboratory systems and networks.