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| Ebola |
Co-chairman of the group, Professor Innocent Uja, disclosed this on Wednesday, at a news conference on the meeting, in Abuja.
The Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, had, in the wake of the Ebola outbreak in Lagos, inaugurated the TRG to, among other things, review available treatment options for the disease.
Uja said the meeting would be a gathering of Nigerian experts based at home and in the Diaspora. “You will recall that in the wake of the Ebola outbreak in Lagos, the minister of health inaugurated the TRG to help design a path for the containment of the Ebola virus.
“Since then, the group has met severally and has made propositions one of which is the stakeholders meeting, scheduled for October 10.
“This meeting will review available treatment options, discuss experimental drugs and vaccines and ultimately develop a national plan in containing Ebola and other emerging diseases in Africa,” he said.
Uja said the Abuja meeting would be the first step toward institutionalising research in medicine and other branches of the sciences in the country, adding that a lot of benefits would be derived from it.
He said the group would consolidate on the achievements recorded by Nigeria in containing Ebola and build a strong defence mechanism in the event of another outbreak.
On his part, Professor Karniyus Gamaniel, also a co-chair of the group, said the meeting was aimed at harnessing the abundance of talents that the nation could boast of in the field of medical sciences.
Gamaniel, however, said funding was the only challenge militating against effective research in Nigeria, adding that the country is endowed with the requisite manpower, needed to improve its health system.
He said the meeting would open up the system for possible investments in the areas of pharmaceutical and medical research and that Nigeria was capable of producing vaccines and drugs, required for the prevention of virus diseases, including Ebola, if the needed support was extended to experts in the field.
A member of the research group, Professor Maurice Iwu, said the meeting would open a new vista in the history of medical research in Nigeria.
Iwu added that Nigerian experts from all over the world would be in the country to share their experiences and help build a formidable structure for research in the country.
Iwu said it would be the first time a deliberate attempt would be made by Nigerians to find solutions to their local health issues without looking outward for aid.
“We want to have our own solutions to our problems and this is the first time this kind of thing is happening in our country.
“I don’t want us to preempt what will happen at this meeting but like the other speakers have said, it is the first step toward developing our own model of handling health emergencies.”
Iwu said claims by experts on the treatment of Ebola and other health issues would be discussed and recommended for verification at the meeting.
