19 September 2012, Sweetcrude/African Press Organization (APO), ABUJA, Nigeria – The government of Nigeria commissioned a new Defence Reference Laboratory (DRL) that was built in partnership with the Department of Defense Walter Reed Program-Nigeria.
“The DRL is a critical piece for healthcare, enabling world-class diagnostic and laboratory monitoring services for military personnel and the civilian population living in the surrounding communities,” said U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Terrence McCulley, who attended the event along with other high-ranking officials from the Nigerian military.
Located in Mogadishu Cantonment, Abuja, the state-of-the-art laboratory is the first of its kind in the sub-region. It is a multi-purpose laboratory for PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief)-supported research and diagnostics and a reference laboratory for the Nigerian military hospital laboratories.
The Laboratory will coordinate and oversee the program’s Quality Assurance and Quality Control activities in the areas of:
• Infectious disease management;
• Epidemic preparedness and response;
• Infectious diseases surveillance;
• Operational research;
• Monitoring and evaluation; and
• Human capacity development and empowerment.
The laboratory is a result of a strong partnership between the U.S. Department of Defence and Nigeria’s Ministry of Defence through the Walter Reed Program-Nigeria and the Emergency Plan Implementation Committee. The laboratory was made possible through the funding by the U.S. Defense Department and the Ministry of Defence.
