From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The World Health Organization (WHO) has promised to support Nigeria’s genomic surveillance with a view to further fighting pandemics.
A team of the WHO, led by the Chief Molecular Bioengineer for the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Nnaemeka Ndodo, who visited the Osun State University (UNIOSUN) yesterday, said the mission was to support and strengthen genomic surveillance not only in Nigeria but all over Africa.
The team who visited the UNIOSUN Multidisciplinary Research Laboratory explained that the university has a molecule centre that will be very useful in pandemics.
He said: “We are leading the WHO team on a mission to Nigeria, to support and strengthen our genomic surveillance and to also look at the labs that have been participating.
“We have looked at all the places where they do a lot of genomic sequencing and we see that the University of Osun has the molecule diffuses centre that will be very useful in a pandemic.
This is a continuation of the learning process, trying to understand the challenges that the testing laboratory is going through, to understand areas where we can collaborate, learn and share insight.
“Our focus is more on improving and sustaining genomic surveillance, knowing the importance, impart of genomic surveillance in advancing our knowledge of transmission of the virus in this pandemic.
“NCDC has been in the forefront of supporting all the sub-national entities in response that no other agency has been able to do, so we will continue to support and provide as much as possible to make sure we reported the health of the nation,” Ndodo added.
