Pathologists Worried over Inadequacy of Testing Centres

As number of Nigerians infected by the Coronavirus continues to rise, the College of Nigerian Pathologists (CNP) has asked federal government to substantially decentralise the testing centres as a strategy to accelerate the control of the outbreak.

In a statement issued yesterday by the CNP President, Professor P. O. Olatunji, the body warned against the use of non-validated test kits in handling Covid-19 disease tests.

On the restriction of testing centres to five facilities in Lagos, Irua in Edo State, Ede in Osun State and the national reference laboratories in Abuja, CNP said there were competent pathologists and medical laboratory scientists in the tertiary hospitals that carry out COVID-19 tests , thereby spreading out the testing centres across the country.

“We do not see any reason why our tertiary healthcare centres where competent pathologists and medical laboratory scientists are situated, cannot carry out COVID-19 tests.

“We urge the federal and state governments to deploy a portion of the COVID-19 budget to bridge whatever deficiencies exist in our tertiary diagnostic laboratories, “it said.

Olatunji said members of the CNP had been playing leading roles in case identification, case management and development of guidelines and protocol for infection prevention and control of COVID-19.

CNP also called for the adoption of a more innovative and quicker diagnostic approach as against the NCDC recommended Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) being used at the moment.

The statement also said that CNP was concerned about a possible abuse of Chloroquine arising from its purported usefulness in treating COVID-19 infection.