The Federal Government, the United
States and the World Health Organisation
have opened Ebola Study centres in Abuja
and Jos.
With support from the Defence Reference
Laboratory, one of the centres is located
at the Ministry of Defence-United States
Department of Defence within the Ship
House headquarters of the Ministry of
Defence.
Unveiling the Abuja centre, Minister of
Health, Dr. Khaliru Alhassan, said the
two centres had been opened for the
study and research into the Ebola vaccine
in the country.
Alhasan, who was represented by the
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health,
Dr. Linus Awute, said the second centre
was located at the Jos University Teaching
Hospital, Jos.
He commended the US Ambassador to
Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle and the
USDoD Walter Reed Programme, which
collaborated with the MoD Health
Implementation Programme to facilitate
Nigeria’s participation in the Ebola study.
He said the vaccine, when developed and
approved, would be beneficial to most
people at risk as a result of the dreaded
vaccine in parts of Africa.
The Minister recalled that Nigeria played
a major role in the fight to control the
disease in other African countries apart
from preventing its spread within the
country.
He said, “This is one of the two sites
where this vaccine study is scheduled to
take place in Nigeria, the other site being
the Jos University Teaching Hospital.
“The effort to develop an Ebola vaccine is
a product of the collective resolve to
protect our world against the disease. It
is a resolution which however requires
international collaboration and
partnership for its execution.
“We therefore thank the Government of
the United States of America, the World
Health Organisation and stakeholders for
extending a hand of partnership in
bringing this vaccine trial to Nigeria.
“The vaccine when finally developed and
approved will be of direct benefit to most
persons at risk in many parts of Africa.
However, it will be universally beneficial
because we live in a world that has been
rightly described as a global village
where what happens in one part rapidly
affects the other.”
Minister of Defence, Gen Aliyu Gusau,
represented by the Minister of State for
Defence, Col. Augustine Akobundu (retd),
said a lot of efforts had been committed
into the development of the vaccine.
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