By Fola James
When the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, DR Chikew Ihekweazu met with President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock, Presidential villa on Sunday, one thing he told the president will shock many Nigerians: the agency is in shortage of chemical reagents to test Nigerians who may be carrying the corona virus.
According to checks, out of the 15 testing centers the NCDC operates across the country, only the Lagos and Abuja centers are believed to still have ‘materials’ that can only last few weeks.
The NCDC boss would later post on his twitter handle that the agency is also in desperate need of test kits in all its centers
He said, “We’re desperately looking for more RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) extraction kits as we expand #COVID19 testing. Product: Total viral RNA extraction kits (preferably spin column and with a lysis buffer). Manufacturers: Qiagen, ThermoFischer, SeeGene, Inqaba, LifeRiver etc.”
According to Sciencedirect.com Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a nucleic acid polymer consisting of nucleotide … an essential carrier molecule for amino acids used in protein synthesis.
It’s an essential materials used by virologists in the laboratory.
The scarcity of this particular material and test kits, as the NCDC director general said, may have really hampered the operations of the agency as they make desperate efforts to save the lives of Nigerians who are COVID 19 positive, scientific analysts say.
They are right.
Ebun Adegboruwa, a senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN have recently claimed that people are being turned back from NCDC centers because the agency have been overwhelmed by the numbers of persons visiting the agency’s testing centers in Lagos.
Some Nigerians claimed they were turned back by NCDC officials in the Abuja office.
A top Virologist at the University of Ilorin Teaching hospital, Kwara state told the magazine on Sunday that the NCDC is currently rationing “materials and cannot afford to test those that are already showing symptoms of COVID 19.”
What the NCDC is doing, he explained, is that they want to ensure that they don’t exhaust what they have “by just simply testing everybody.
This strategy could be dangerous, said medical experts who said, the only way to find out who is actually carrying the novel virus is to test whoever has shown its symptoms.
Bu the virologist said there is not chance for gamble.
He said “Nigeria does not have the capacity to treat positive people at this time, the virologist said, adding that ”wearing of mask and social distancing are the only measures that can save our people from the pandemic.”
“If you love yourself and your family,” he said, “stay at home, because your life and those of your loved ones depend on it.”
