Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Kubwa General Hospital, Abuja, has taken delivery of premium laboratory instruments and reagents worth over N25 million to further research on burden, prevalence, risk factors and incidence of non-communicable diseases among people living with HIV/AIDS in FCT.
The medical supplies was donated by ISN Medical, a leading supplier of medical diagnostic equipment in Nigeria and sponsors of the research in collaboration with the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN).
Some of the laboratory instruments donated include Cobas C111 and AVL, which has the capacity to run over 40 tests including electrolytes, renal function, liver function, lipid profile, blood glucose, proteins and critical care.
Mindray BC5150 (a fully automated hematology analyser), Merck Lab Water unit and BD Consumables were also donated. All the equipment, they said, will be stationed at Kubwa General Hospital and will become property of the hospital once the research is completed.
Acting Regional Sales Manager for ISN Medical Vitalis Echebiri, who handed over the equipments to the hospital in Kubwa, Abuja, explained that the motive was not to make financial gain, but to strengthen indigenous research efforts through the provision of local funding for the development of medical content.
He said the company believe that Nigerians will benefit from the innovative scientific findings that the study will inform, and it’s a cohort research in which 200 people living with HIV will be registered, alongside another 200 people who test negative for HIV.
‘They will be registered and tested periodically for non-communicable diseases over a period of two years. We are starting with Kubwa Hospital as the first site, but the research will expand to other facilities including University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Nyanya General Hospital, Asokoro District Hospital and Police Clinic,’ he said.
The Executive Director of the International Research Centre of Excellence (IRCE), an arm of IHVN, conducting the study, Prof. Alash’le Abimiku, in his remarks, said the aim of the intervention was to characterize the burden, prevalence and incidence of non-communicable diseases in people living with HIV/AIDS.
Abimiku, who represented by Dr Elima Jedy-Agba, said: ‘People living with HIV/AIDS are now living longer, getting to the age when they develop non-communicable diseases.’
Medical Director, Kubwa General hospital, Dr Lasisi Muideen, in his response, said the study will consider four groups of non-communicable diseases, notably, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, cancer (cervical and prostate cancer), and chronic obstructive pulmonary airway diseases.
He was optimistic that the research will provide data that will be useful in more proactive and effective management of non-communicable diseases.
‘This research is very important. Since we started comprehensive HIV services here, we have recruited 2,500 patients, majority of them are adults. Due to the effectiveness of HIV treatment, many of them have survived and have now entered the adult age of life where diabetes, hypertension and cardiac diseases are very prevalent,’ he said.
