Nigeria needs to go back to funding laboratory research in order to develop a local vaccine for the Covid-19 disease as there i+s the probability that imported vaccines may not be effective in the country, according to Matthew Kolawole, a virologist and also professor at the Faculty of Science, University of Ilorin (Unilorin).
With a high community transmission of the novel virus, the professor said Nigeria needs to look inward on how it can develop its Covd-19 vaccine.
“If we have a vaccine from outside, it is possible it won’t be effective in this country,” Kolawole said on Sunrise daily on Tuesday adding that: “We need to return to the track because Nigeria in the past was developing vaccines that we were even exported to West African nations.”
Data by Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) showed that 242 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed on Monday, giving a total of 4641. Out of which, Lagos, the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria, led with 88 cases and was closely followed by Kano (64 cases). A spate of deaths in Kano, initially dubbed ‘mysterious deaths’ have been confirmed to be linked to the virus.
While 49 cases were recorded in Katsina, 13-Kaduna, 9-Ogun, 6-Gombe, 4-Adamawa, 3-FCT, 1-Ondo, 1-Oyo, 1–Rivers, 1-Zamfara, 1-Borno, and 1-Bauchi, NCDC data revealed that 902 patients have been treated and discharged, and the death toll has climbed to 150 since the first case was reported in Nigeria on February 28, 2020.
Meanwhile, as of Tuesday, there has not been a certified cure by the World Health Organization for treating coronavirus.
Professor Kolawole is, however, promoting local production of the Covid-19 vaccine in Nigeria and according to him: “Of course, there is a need for follow up which has to do with funding, Nigeria is highly endowed with the technical know-how and the human resources.”
He explained that Africa’s most populous nation has a lot of experts but “all we need is for us to move on from the stage of the proposal to the stage of funding.”
This is coming as Nigeria is stretching its arms to finding a possible cure from any part of the world, especially from Africa.
According to Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation President Buhari has directed the presidential task force on COVID-19 to pick up the COVID-19 Syrup from Madagascar that has been alleged to be the “remedy” for Coronavirus.
Boss Mustapha said Madagascar has donated some of the products to Nigeria through Guinea-Bissau, and arrangements were being made to pick them up.
Checks by BusinessDay revealed that the consignment has been sent to Equatorial Guinea from where it will be airlifted to Abuja. It was gathered that African countries were divided into zones for ease of transportation, leading to freighting of Nigeria’s consignments to Equatorial Guinea.
However, the herbal medicine from Madagascar which is yet to get the endorsement of WHO is likely to undergo the standard validation process of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
Meanwhile, Unilorin had said on Monday that it will soon produce a vaccine for Coronavirus (COVID-19). The institution said in a Bulletin seen by BusinessDay that a team of medical experts and scientists led by Kolawole, is working on the project.
It stated the research team had developed three viable proposals for research on various aspects of the contagious disease. Apart from finding the cure to the virus, the institution wants to work on the molecular epidemiology surveillance for Coronavirus as well as a prototype for the detection of the virus.
“Research has been done in several institutions and research institute, all we need to do is to harness them as put them together. Not just funding the research but also using the product for the research for policy implementation and also for industrialization,” Kolawole said.
