Ahmad Sorondinki in Kano.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, NCDC, and the Kano Independent Research Centre Trust, KIRCT, have pledged to strengthen collaboration to tackle existing diseases and prevent future outbreaks in Kano State.
Speaking at the Kano Independent Research Centre Trust, during a technical visit on Thursday, the Director-General of the NCDC, Dr. Jide Idris, described the partnership as key to strengthening Nigeria’s health security.
According to him, the centre’s strategy involves accelerating the plan through combined expertise from KIRCT personnel and Federal Government health officials.
“We are also pushing for more collaborations with various state governments to support them in detecting and controlling factors that could lead to disease outbreaks,” he said.
“Our plan for collaboration needs to be fast-tracked because we have many scientists across the country. We need to pull them together and encourage them to do work that was hitherto done by people outside Nigeria. It is time we built our local capacity to do these things and showcase them,” he stated.
He commended KIRCT for its cutting-edge research facilities and skilled personnel, describing the centre as “an organised institution with dedicated staff.”
“We are going to work together. We will exchange materials, train jointly, link with each other on public health decisions, and see how we can support them,” he assured.
Also speaking, the Director-General of KIRCT, Professor Hamisu Salihu, thanked Dr. Idris and his technical team for the visit.
“He has come, he has seen what we have, and I am very excited that he has a positive impression of our work here,” Professor Salihu said.
He noted that while KIRCT already collaborates with the Kano State public health system, more collaboration is needed from the NCDC, especially on the handling of bio-specimens.
“We are a private entity. We collaborate with government and with everybody. But for certain sensitive areas, especially deadly infections, we must have the green light from the NCDC because the Centre is the lead agency for health security in this country,” he added.