It is official. No laboratory in
Nigeria can effectively diagnose the
Ebola virus because there is none
that has the requisite
infrastructure to culture and
manipulate the deadly virus that
has been responsible for the death
of hundreds of people in countries
across West Africa within the last
one month .
That means samples from any
patient suspected to be carrying
the disease may have to be taken
to the Centre for Disease Control
( CDC) laboratories in Atlanta ,
United States of America ( USA ) , or
to laboratories in Dakar, Senegal
for confirmation.
This disclosure came even as
renowned virologist and President,
Nigerian Academy of Science
( NAS) , Professor Oyewale Tomori,
in an interview with Sunday
Independent stated that
“ antibodies that were similar to
that of Ebola virus were discovered
in a sera (body fluid ) samples of a
patient in Nigeria in 1988. ”
A confirmation of Nigeria’ s inability
to handle the diagnosis of the
Ebola virus in humans came from
the Registrar of the Medical
Laboratory Council of Nigeria
( MLCN ), Professor Anthony
Emeribe, in an interview with
Sunday IndependentS
Speaking at the weekend, Emeribe
said, “Agreed , Nigeria has the
capacity (personnel and space)
that can detect Ebola virus. There
is , however , no laboratory in
Nigeria that has the safety levels
needed for the diagnosis of the
virus .”
According to the MLCN Registrar,
the most advanced laboratories in
Nigeria that can handle similar
cases have a maximum Level 3
Biosafety level as against Level 4,
which is the basic for Ebola Virus
culturing and manipulation.

Can't believe this

seriously cnt imagine..after all d praises dey received for controllin ebola cases.hw did they do it

No laboratory in Nigeria can diagnose ebola, and a host of diseases.

Dats d sad reality!!!

There are CDC officials in nigeria and there will definitely be means of testing for the virus now as put in place by CDC and WHO after patrick slayer's case. I can remember that after the ebola test that was conducted at LUTH for patrick slayer indicated positive for ebola, his blood sample had to be sent to senegal for a confirmatory test which also came back positive. Now samples don't have to be sent for test in senegal as evident from the subsequent cases after the slayer case so no cause for alarm. We will not hear of Ebola again in this country by God's grace.

Avril83: There are CDC officials in nigeria and there will definitely be means of testing for the virus now as put in place by CDC and WHO after patrick slayer's case. I can remember that after the ebola test that was conducted at LUTH for patrick slayer indicated positive for ebola, his blood sample had to be sent to senegal for a confirmatory test which also came back positive. Now samples don't have to be sent for test in senegal as evident from the subsequent cases after the slayer case so no cause for alarm. We will not hear of Ebola again in this country by God's grace.

Abeg tell d guy dunno if he was asleep when things were happening. There are 2 labs ( LUTH and Reedemers) capable of conducting credible tests.

Maybe no lab can carry out full diagnosis in Nigeria, but I believe there is a way they've been detecting the virus so far. Unless this guy is tying to tell us all the negatives might actually be positive and the positives might be negative. God dey sha.