Nigerian Center for Disease Control Selected Alongside Two Others to Research World’s Deadliest Diseases by WHO

Nigerian Center for Disease Control Selected Alongside Two Others to Research World’s Deadliest Diseases by WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) alongside the African Centre for Disease Control (ACDC) has selected three African centers for disease control as specialized continental reference sequencing research laboratories for emerging pathogens. The selected centers include a Nigerian Center for Disease Control alongside two others in South Africa.

The selected centers include African Centre of Excellence for Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) in Nigeria, South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI) and Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) in South Africa.

The African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) is located at Redeemer’s University Ede, Nigeria and it is a World Bank funded collaborative research center.

ACEGID has a mandate to build capacity in the field of genomics in young African scientists. The organization aims to translate research outcomes to products that can be deployed to the field to contribute to the control, management, and elimination of infectious diseases in the continent.

According to the World Health Organization’s Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the centers have been given the mandate to lead Africa sequencing efforts for COVID-19 viruses and other emerging pathogens, serve as continental reference centers for research, innovation and training in infectious disease and bioinformatics.

As the search for solutions to COVID-19 and other world’s deadliest diseases continues, the WHO has selected the centers as World Health Organization reference centers and bioinformatics research powerhouses for the world’s deadliest diseases. The centers are also mandated to develop and validate test kits, support lab accreditation, and ensure quality assurance processes.

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Dr. Moeti also stated that the global multilateral health regulatory body has requested permission from both Nigerian and South African Health Ministries to allow shipping of COVID-19 samples from all African countries to the designated specialized regional reference sequencing laboratories in their respective countries.

The national health ministries of both Nigeria and South Africa will also both get the support of WHO and the African Centre for Disease Control ACDC in providing logistics towards sequencing of COVID-19 and other emerging pathogens’ samples.