The Federal Government has appealed to World Health Organisation (WHO) to establish reference laboratory in the country as part of efforts to reduce time interval between detection and response to yellow fever epidemic in Nigeria.
Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, made the appeal during the exit press briefing by WHO Director-General, Dr Tedro Ghebreyesus, on Friday in Abuja.
Nigeria hosted the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Policy Group (GPG) meeting recently.
The GPG membership is made up of the Director-General, Deputy Director-General, six Regional Directors and the Executive Director of the WHO Emergencies Programme.
Adewole urged WHO to establish the laboratory in the country so that Nigeria would not have to take samples to Senegal for confirmation.
He noted that Nigeria was half of West Africa and about a quarter of Africa, adding that having a reference laboratory in the country was something worth doing.
