Posted on: Wed 22-04-2020

MLSCN SALUTES THE DEXTERITY OF FRONTLINE MLS IN NIGERIA’S RESPONSE TO COVID-19

1. The world is currently grappling with the scourge of COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives with well over one million confirmed cases. No doubt, testing for the virus will lead to its containment.

2. Expectedly, the Director General of the World Health Organization had urged all the countries of the world with suspected cases to embark on testing, testing and testing and MLS is at the center of this testing.

3. MLSCN, a Federal Government Agency with the statutory mandate of regulating Medical Laboratory Services in Nigeria, at the onset of the global pandemic, developed a National Guideline on COVID-19 testing. MLSCN in her guideline placed reverse transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) as the gold standard an confirmatory test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the aetiological agent of COVID-19. The responsibility of molecular testing carried out on human specimen for the purpose of COVID-19 diagnosis, is statutorily placed on only qualified and licensed Medical Laboratory Scientists with requisite experience.

 

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