One of the biggest challenges confronting Nigeria’s war against the COVID-19 pandemic is the limited diagnostic infrastructure in the country, according to the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre For Disease Control, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu.
The NCDC boss attributed the challenge to decades of neglect. Dr. Ihekweazu stated this during his appearance on The Platform on Saturday. He was responding to a question, posed by Convener of The Platform, Pastor Poju Oyemade.about what he considered the most difficult challenge in managing the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
“We haven’t paid sufficient attention in the 60 years of our independence to building a diagnostic architecture across the country and COVID-19 is the most obvious example of this. But there are many more examples that we face every day,” Dr. Ihekweazu said.
“You know, when you see people with a diagnosis of malaria and typhoid as one entity and all sorts of dubious diagnosis being shared around the country, the underlying challenge is exactly the same as what you are seeing now with COVID-19.”
For the NCDC boss, the failure in providing diagnostic infrastructure is not down to one sector or the government, it is a collective failure.
“When I say “we”, I am not just talking about the Federal Government; I am talking about all of us – private sector, public sector. We have failed to build diagnostic infrastructure,” he said.
The emergence of COVID-19 in the country and its spread may have exposed the failings of the past but it is also helping to change the situation with the government and stakeholders racing against time to implement measures against it.
“Now we are scrambling, and, yes, we are building rapidly, we are scaling our labs every day… We are quickly ramping up our testing,” Dr. Ihekweazu said, adding, “Really, the size and scale of Nigeria is our biggest strength but also a big challenge”
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The NCDC boss attributed the challenge to decades of neglect. Dr. Ihekweazu stated this during his appearance on The Platform on Saturday. He was responding to a question, posed by Convener of The Platform, Pastor Poju Oyemade.about what he considered the most difficult challenge in managing the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
“We haven’t paid sufficient attention in the 60 years of our independence to building a diagnostic architecture across the country and COVID-19 is the most obvious example of this. But there are many more examples that we face every day,” Dr. Ihekweazu said.
“You know, when you see people with a diagnosis of malaria and typhoid as one entity and all sorts of dubious diagnosis being shared around the country, the underlying challenge is exactly the same as what you are seeing now with COVID-19.”
For the NCDC boss, the failure in providing diagnostic infrastructure is not down to one sector or the government, it is a collective failure.
“When I say “we”, I am not just talking about the Federal Government; I am talking about all of us – private sector, public sector. We have failed to build diagnostic infrastructure,” he said.
The emergence of COVID-19 in the country and its spread may have exposed the failings of the past but it is also helping to change the situation with the government and stakeholders racing against time to implement measures against it.
“Now we are scrambling, and, yes, we are building rapidly, we are scaling our labs every day… We are quickly ramping up our testing,” Dr. Ihekweazu said, adding, “Really, the size and scale of Nigeria is our biggest strength but also a big challenge”
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