Members of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (ASMLSN) have called on the Federal Government to expedite action on local vaccine production.
The members made the call in a communique released to newsmen after the association’s 16th Public Health Lecture/205th National Executive Council Meeting that took place between July 22 and July 23 in Dutse.
In the communique, jointly signed by its National President, Prof. James Garba, National Secretary, Dr. Musa Muhibi, and National Publicity Secretary, Olusoji Billyrose, they also urged the government to resuscitate vaccine laboratories.
The laboratory scientists decried the moribund nature of human vaccine production amid disturbing emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19, Marburg, Lassa fever, and Monkeypox.
They recalled that “in the early days of this country, medical laboratory scientists produced yellow fever and other vaccines to meet in-country needs and exported same to countries in the African region.
Related Articles
“Today, Nigeria has become a dumping ground for all sorts of vaccines produced using alien microbial strains coming from countries that were trailing behind Nigeria at independence.
“The continuous deployment of these alien microbial-based vaccines among our population poses serious health challenges, as it has been evidenced that many of these alien microbial-based vaccines have failed to elicit the requisite immunogenicity and the recipient, therefore, remains vulnerable even after the vaccination.”
The scientists, who said that infectious diseases would continue to emerge and re-emerge at national and sub-national levels, added that members must continue to reinvent policies and practices to investigate outbreaks with the view of containing diseases early enough before they progress into pandemic.
The ASMLSN members also agreed that public and private laboratories in the country should key into the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria’s accreditation programs to boost the quality of Medical Laboratory Science as directed by the ISO15189, being the relevant international standard document of operation.
