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Sunday, January 8, 2012

QUALITY MEDICAL LABORATORY SERVICES FOR HIV/AIDS CAMPAIGN

By SAMUEL UREME

The campaign for the eradication of HIV/AIDS has been on for years. This has culminated in the celebration of world AIDS day every 1st of December. So many events have been instituted to raise funds for campaign, fighting prejudice and improving health education on the disease. As effective as the event and others have been, it is vital to reinvigorate some critical programmes to ensure a consistent improvement in service delivery. Quality medical laboratory services are a key element of any programme against the scourge and management of those already affected. Medical laboratory is a diagnostic and investigative facility of all medical outfits. Consequently, it is the centre point of HIV detection, identification, drug and vaccine production. It was only when the virus was isolated in the laboratory in the mid 1980s that the global community became conscious of HIV/AIDS among the human population. It was the medical laboratory that exposed the virus as taking advantage of human activities like sexual activities, blood transfusion, and use of unsterilized objects. Currently, laboratory and other scientists are continuously researching into improving antiretroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS therapy and this will add more impetus to vaccine research and production.
Quality laboratory is the key in the effort to combat the pandemic and will endure as long as science remains a human activity. There is the need for laboratory services in Nigeria to be upgraded to global standards to furnish HIV screening and confirmation test results that are accurate and in tandem with international standards. If the laboratory is not properly equipped and run by competent professionals, its critical role particularly in HIV/AIDS crusade would be compromised. At the moment, laboratory services in Nigeria are below standards of operation in Europe and America. The resources to establish new laboratories and mark up the existing ones are available. What is required is an improved political will to address the health problem of the nation. The need for quality laboratory services does not need any emphasis. The central essence of the AIDS campaign is to institutionalize a laboratory programme that will guarantee accurate results on a consistent basis. A situation where laboratory results vary from laboratory to laboratory is unwholesome and dangerous to the public. It is worse in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The Federal and State governments should empower the agencies that regulate laboratory practice to do more in the interest of the public. The laboratory professionals in Nigeria should rise up to the demand of HIV/AIDS campaign in consonance with global standards. This is a clarion call to respond to the challenge thrown up by HIV/AIDS.

Source: FRCN daily Commentary

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