The Nation Newspaper

Tag: scientists

  • Scientists win Nobel Prize for medicine

    Three scientists from Japan, China and Ireland whose discoveries led to the development of potent new drugs against parasitic diseases, including malaria and elephantiasis have won the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

    Irish-born William Campbell and Japan’s Satoshi Omura won half of the prize for discovering avermectin, a derivative of which has been used to treat hundreds of millions of people with river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis.

    China’s Tu Youyou was awarded the other half of the prize for discovering artemisinin, a drug that has slashed malaria deaths and has become the mainstay of fighting the mosquito-borne disease.

    She is China’s first Nobel laureate in medicine.

    Some 3.4 billion people, most of them living in poor countries, are at risk of contracting the three parasitic diseases.

    “These two discoveries have provided humankind with powerful new means to combat these debilitating diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people annually,” the Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said.

    “The consequences in terms of improved human health and reduced suffering are immeasurable.”

    Today, the medicine ivermectin, a derivative of avermectin made by Merck & Co, is used worldwide to fight roundworm parasites, while artemisinin-based drugs from firms including Novartis and Sanofi are the main weapons against malaria.

    Omura and Campbell made their breakthrough in fighting parasitic worms, or helminths, after studying compounds from soil bacteria.

    That led to the discovery of avermectin, which was then further modified into ivermectin.

    The treatment is so successful that river blindness and lymphatic filariasis are now on the verge of being eradicated.

    Omura, 80, said the real credit for the achievement should go to the ingenuity of the Streptomyces bacteria, whose naturally occurring chemicals were so effective at killing off parasites.

    “I really wonder if I deserve this,” he said after learning he had won the prize.

    “I have done all my work depending on microbes and learning from them, so I think the microbes might almost deserve it more than I do.”

    Omura is professor emeritus at Kitasato University in Japan, while Campbell is research fellow emeritus at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.

    “This was the work of a team of researchers so it is by no means my work, it’s our work,” said Campbell, 85, who learned of his prize in a pre-dawn phone call from Reuters that woke him at his home in North Andover, Massachusetts.

    “In the first decade, there were 70 authors that I co-authored papers with. That gives you some idea of the number of people involved,” he said.

    Tu, meanwhile, turned to a traditional Chinese herbal medicine in her hunt for a better malaria treatment, following the declining success of the older drugs chloroquine and quinine.

    She found that an extract from the plant Artemisia annua was sometimes effective but the results were inconsistent, so she went back to ancient literature, including a recipe from AD 350, in the search for clues.

    This eventually led to the isolation of artemisinin, a new class of anti-malaria drug, which was available in China before it reached the West.

    Tu, 84, has worked at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine since 1965.

    World Health Organisation spokesman Gregory Hartl said the award of a Nobel prize for the discovery was a great tribute to the contribution of Chinese science in fighting malaria.

    “We now have drugs that kill these parasites very early in their life-cycle,” said Juleen Zierath, chair of the Nobel Committee.

    “They not only kill these parasites but they stop these infections from spreading.”

    Death rates from malaria have plunged 60 percent in the past 15 years, although the disease still kills around half a million people a year, the vast majority of them babies and young children in the poorest parts of Africa.

    The eight million Swedish crowns (960,000 dollas) medicine prize is the first of the Nobel prizes awarded each year.

    Prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace were first awarded in 1901 in accordance with the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel.

    Last year, the medicine prize went to three scientists who discovered the brain’s inner navigation system.

  • Scientists harp on quality water for research, analysis, others

    Scientists harp on quality water for research, analysis, others

    Scientists have called on laboratory attendants to use quality water in their analysis and other investigations.

    They said the use of impure water leads to wrong results because there are various contaminants in unpurified water.

    The experts, who spoke at a workshop, tagged the Laboratory Water Academy (LWA), organised by the National Institute of Science Laboratory Technology (NISLT), Katchey Company Limited and Merck Millipore in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, stressed the importance of water as the most used re-agent in the laboratory.

    NISLT’s Director-General, Dr Ighodalo Ijagbone, said water is an essential chemical used in the laboratory as it constitutes about 85 per cent of chemical constituents.

    “So, the quality of water matters to what scientists do in the laboratory if they are to get the right result. For example, if bad water is used for investigation that may be of clinical value, such as diagnosing the cause of a disease, there is no way one can get good result for the doctors to treat the patient effectively,” he said.

    He continued: “This is why the experts from Merck are trying to build our capacity so that we can produce quality water that is fitting for the laboratory.

    “The water used in the laboratory is quite different from portable drinking water because it was purified through a system, which is higher than that of drinking water.”

    The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Katchey Company Limited, Mrs Kate Isa, said some laboratories do cut corners by using impure or poor quality water for analysis without thinking of the consequences.

    “When an analyst uses air condition water or bottled water for analysis because it is cheaper, he or she would not get the right result. The result may be  false, positive or negative, which means that bad products may be released into the market. And this may hurt the people. If the said products are traced back to the company that produced them, it can be shut. In the long run, it is very costly as it may affect the company’s reputation and also damage its equipment. This is because the company used water, which has contaminants. The consumables will also not last,” she said.

    She said Merck Millipore is also interested in strengthening the capacity of regulatory companies because it would ensure that special products are made so that people are well served.

    Mrs Isa charged the Federal Government to put in place economic policies that will encourage investors, especially in laboratory sciences.

    Director of Marketing, Merck Millipore, Dr. Maurice Memme, said the training was significant because water is crucial to everything scientists do in the labs.

    Memme, who spoke on water purification solution for labs, said there could not be accurate results from research or labs’work or application without clean water.

    Memme, who is in-charge of Water Purification in East Europe/Middle East/Africa, said if people use unpurified water, which of course have twice the quantities of metal in it to grow cells or to do in-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) people will never get result.

    “The metals will inhibit all the reactions that are backing the cells’ growth and division. This will give scientists wrong result,” he said.

    He spoke of water being categorised according to their level of purity, adding: “Type-one water is the most pure water, which people can have and use for all serious applications in the laboratory. Also, there is type-two water, which is used in the vast majority of analytical researches. Type three is less clean and it is for general laboratory use, eg, washing machine.”

    Distillation alone, he said, cannot produce pure water.

    This, he said, is because the quantity of distilled water, if measured, is five times lower than water gotten through the purification system.

    “People cannot rely on one technology if they want to produce pure water,” he said.

    He said Nigeria is ripe to have laboratory water at every point in time, adding that there are established water purification system plants already.

    “We have eight water purification systems/units working at the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC),” he said.

    Memme said there was the need for effective regulation of labs water, adding that it would ensure that only quality water is used for experiments in the labs.

     

  • Scientists harp on quality water for research, analysis, others

    Scientists harp on quality water for research, analysis, others

    Scientists have called on laboratory attendants to use quality water in their analysis and other investigations.

    They said the use of impure water leads to wrong results because there are various contaminants in unpurified water.

    The experts, who spoke at a workshop, tagged the Laboratory Water Academy (LWA), organised by the National Institute of Science Laboratory Technology (NISLT), Katchey Company Limited and Merck Millipore in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, stressed the importance of water as the most used re-agent in the laboratory.

    NISLT’s Director-General, Dr Ighodalo Ijagbone, said water is an essential chemical used in the laboratory as it constitutes about 85 per cent of chemical constituents.

    “So, the quality of water matters to what scientists do in the laboratory if they are to get the right result. For example, if bad water is used for investigation that may be of clinical value, such as diagnosing the cause of a disease, there is no way one can get good result for the doctors to treat the patient effectively,” he said.

    He continued: “This is why the experts from Merck are trying to build our capacity so that we can produce quality water that is fitting for the laboratory.

    “The water used in the laboratory is quite different from portable drinking water because it was purified through a system, which is higher than that of drinking water.”

    The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Katchey Company Limited, Mrs Kate Isa, said some laboratories do cut corners by using impure or poor quality water for analysis without thinking of the consequences.

    “When an analyst uses air condition water or bottled water for analysis because it is cheaper, he or she would not get the right result. The result may be  false, positive or negative, which means that bad products may be released into the market. And this may hurt the people. If the said products are traced back to the company that produced them, it can be shut. In the long run, it is very costly as it may affect the company’s reputation and also damage its equipment. This is because the company used water, which has contaminants. The consumables will also not last,” she said.

    She said Merck Millipore is also interested in strengthening the capacity of regulatory companies because it would ensure that special products are made so that people are well served.

    Mrs Isa charged the Federal Government to put in place economic policies that will encourage investors, especially in laboratory sciences.

    Director of Marketing, Merck Millipore, Dr. Maurice Memme, said the training was significant because water is crucial to everything scientists do in the labs.

    Memme, who spoke on water purification solution for labs, said there could not be accurate results from research or labs’work or application without clean water.

    Memme, who is in-charge of Water Purification in East Europe/Middle East/Africa, said if people use unpurified water, which of course have twice the quantities of metal in it to grow cells or to do in-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) people will never get result.

    “The metals will inhibit all the reactions that are backing the cells’ growth and division. This will give scientists wrong result,” he said.

    He spoke of water being categorised according to their level of purity, adding: “Type-one water is the most pure water, which people can have and use for all serious applications in the laboratory. Also, there is type-two water, which is used in the vast majority of analytical researches. Type three is less clean and it is for general laboratory use, eg, washing machine.”

    Distillation alone, he said, cannot produce pure water.

    This, he said, is because the quantity of distilled water, if measured, is five times lower than water gotten through the purification system.

    “People cannot rely on one technology if they want to produce pure water,” he said.

    He said Nigeria is ripe to have laboratory water at every point in time, adding that there are established water purification system plants already.

    “We have eight water purification systems/units working at the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC),” he said.

    Memme said there was the need for effective regulation of labs water, adding that it would ensure that only quality water is used for experiments in the labs.

  • Scientists restate commitment to malaria fight 

    Scientists are seeking ways to control malaria – a killer disease.

    They spoke at the 50th anniversary of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) in Lagos, titled: Malaria: A neighbour to be conquered.

    They reiterated their commitment to the fight against the ailment.

    The Chief Medical Director (CMD), Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Prof Wale Oke, described the disease as man’s greatest enemy, adding that it was because of the disease that the sub-Saharan region was called the “white man’s grave” in the colonial era.

    “Malaria is the most dangerous disease in the world,” he said.

    Oke said the arrival of HIV/AIDS put malaria to the background, adding that the latter kills more people than the former.

    Besides, some people are seen to be resistant to the HIV virus. The same cannot be said of malaria, he added.

    Malaria, he said, can be controlled, adding: “Where there is a will, there is a way.”

    The anniversary chairman, Prof Oluyemi Akinloye, said the disease places a huge economic burden on the country as over N132 billion is lost yearly to it.

    This, he said, exists despite science and research on its trail for many years.

    He said malaria is a systemic disease, which affects everything else in the body.

    A malariologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Prof Wellington Oyibo, said malaria is still at the control stage in Nigeria, adding: “It is endemic in over 50 per cent of the country.”

    He said parasitic elimination is important, adding that laboratory scientists have a role to play to ensure that.

    The tropical disease specialist said eliminating the parasite would ensure that overcome early and late treatment failure.

    Oyibo identified complex parasites and vector issues; poor knowledge and non-compliance with the intervention strategies, such as long lasting insecticide nets (LLINs) and case management, among others as challenges.

    He called for better funding for malaria control, adding that the health system should be functional.

    Oyibo said 55 countries are on track to reduce malaria burden, adding that 216 clinical cases were reported across the world last year.

    “Last year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says 97 countries suffer ongoing malaria transmission: 3.2 billion people were at risk. 19x million cases were reported globally,” he said.

    He said no fewer than 90 percent of malaria deaths occurred in Africa

    The chairman, organising committee, Mr Gbolahan Kabiawu, said malaria control is everybody’s responsibility.

    He said AMLSN is training its personnel across three levels on malaria diagnosing.

    He said awareness is being created to ensure accurate diagnosis of the disease. “We have been collaborating with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) and malariologists to conduct research to determine species of mosquitoes causing malaria,” Kabiawu said.

    Besides, the Lagos State Government since 2006 constituted a committee on malaria control.

    AMLSN Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr Olumide Fadipe, people must be sensitised to know the necessary control measure/ precautions.

    “The use of Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) is important in treating the disease,” he said

  • Israeli scientists create world’s smallest Bible

    Israeli scientists create world’s smallest Bible

    The Bible is known for many things. It is the most revered book for Christians, and it also contains sacred texts for the Jews. It is also the most widely translated book in the world, having been translated into 2,400 of the world’s 6,800 languages.

    Now, the Bible also holds the distinction as one of the few books to have a nano version—a version with text so small that it could fit on the tip of a pen.

    The world’s smallest version of the Bible, conceived by Uri Sivan and Ohad Zohar, was created by scientists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, located in Northern Israel.

    How exactly was this diminutive version of the Holy Book made? The scientists created a very thin layer of silicon, with a thickness of less than 100 atoms, to which they placed a golden plating.

    Using a focused ion beam, a machine usually used in the semiconductor industry to etch surfaces, the scientists carefully engraved 1.2 million characters, one at a time, blasting away the gold plating to reveal the silicon beneath.

    Sivan, one of those who conceptualised the Nano Bible, said he wanted to spark people’s interest both in God’s Word and technology.

    “More than any other book, the Bible symbolises the transmission of human civilisation from one generation to another. We tried to connect to the device. We wanted to get people curious about the revolution that is taking place before their eyes,” he said.

  • Scientists canvass more clinical trials

    Scientists and medical experts have called for more clinical trials to advanced healthcare in Nigeria and the West African region.

    The forum was the Third Nigerian Annual Clinical Trial Summit in Lagos. It had as theme Advancing global clinical trials in West Africa Sub-region.

    A Professor of Pharmacognosy, Maurice Iwu, said clinical research and associated clinical trials (CTs) are important for advancing public health and development of evidence-based medicine.

    Iwu, whose paper was on Leveraging bilateral and multilateral opportunities in clinical research, said the era of electronic digitalisation, internet and cloud-computing applications demand a review of extant methodologies used in clinical trials to fully take advantage of global clinical resources and assets.

    The former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) boss, said the registration of clinical trials in the public would enhance transparency, adding: “It will also increase trust in research, improve participation and safeguard against public bias.”

    The Chairman, Association for Good Clinical Practice in Nigeria (AGCPN), Prof Ifeoma Okoye, said clinical trials are essential to move healthcare forward as it aims to promote indigenous drug development and health.

    She said the ability of Africa to tackle her double burden of diseases has been severely hampered by lack of infrastructure and experience in clinical research.

    okoye, who is a professor of Radiology at the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Enugu State, said the country is presently making inroad in clinical trials, especially as research are ongoing on Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) drug.

    “What we have is a vaccine. But some experts are working on EVD drug,” Okoye said.

    She urged stakeholders to collaborate with one another and be committed, stressing that all sectors of Nigeria must have a strong sense of ownership, and as such support clinical trials.

    Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr Paul Orhii, said his agency has approved 50 clinical trials on drugs and herbal medicine, including that of EVD.

    He said clinical trials should be seen as a social good, adding that the public needs to participate in research.

    “That way, participants would not be looked at as scapegoats, rather. As contributors to the prevention, dianosis and treatment off diseases,” he said.

    Orhii said the agency has formulated clinical trial guidelines and regulations with the assistance of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

    “This will ensure the generation of credible scientific data that can be accepted internationally,” the DG said.

    Besides, the agency would make the country a clinical trials hub.

     

  • Scientists win inter-faculty dance contest

    Students of the Faculty of Science of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) have proved to be the best in a dance contest held last Saturday at the Management Lecture Theatre. The Season 5 Inter-faculty Dance Contest was organised by Strictly Street Dance Company (SSDC).

    The contest was opened in April and was held weekly to enable the participants perform different dance steps, including hip-hop, ball room, contemporary and traditional dances. The faculties which participated in the grand finale are Education, Science, Engineering, Business and Social Sciences (BSS) and Communications and Information Sciences (CIS).

    Speaking, a member of the panel of judges, Mr Olakunle Omotesho, said the contest was set out to change popular belief about dancers, noting that dance is a tool to create change in the society. He said aim of the contest was to use dance to wage a war against child abuse in the society.

    Omotesho, who is also a dance director at SSDC, said the company had enjoyed a high-level support from the university management, praising the school for allowing students to participate in the contest.

    Participants from each faculty were judged based on their creativity, task, costume, attitude, precision, crowd response and stage management. The Faculty of Science was adjudged to be the best, winning N50,000 cash prize. Faculties of Engineering and Education came second and third, winning N30,000 and N20,000 respectively.

    While presenting the prizes, the SSDC Organising Secretary, who simply gave his name as Babatunde, said the winners would be engaged to develop their talents.

    While appreciating the organisers, leader of the Faculty of Science contestants, Paul Eke, a 400-Level student, said ascribed their feat to divine blessing.

  • IMSU inducts 200 medical scientists

    No fewer than 200 graduating students of the Department of Medical Laboratory Science of the Imo State University (IMSU) have been inducted.

    The event held during the department’s 11th induction at the university auditorium.

    The Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Ukachukwu Aloysius, represented by his deputy on Academics, Prof C. I. Ubochi, congratulated the inductees on the successful completion of their degree courses, saying the occasion was the beginning of their service to humanity.

    The VC said graduates, who have have been found worthy in character and learning, must promote the ideals of the profession and show good qualities in practice.

    The Head of Department (HOD), Dr Ambrose Opara, reminded the inductees of the importance of the oath, saying it was an acceptance into the profession’s hall of fame. He advised the Medical Laboratory Science graduates to uphold the ethics and use it to guide their conduct.

    He urged them to be good ambassador of their alma mater and make their parents proud by conducting themselves in responsible manner.

    The Dean, Faculty of Health Science, Prof. J. N. Nnadozie, in his speech titled: Many were called but a few were chosen, said the inductees must preserve the tradition of excellence for which the school is known. He said prayers for the graduates, advising them to be good members of the profession.

    The Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCON), Prof Anthony Emeribe, said the induction  was not about an individual but the well-being of the profession and its future.

    He said practitioners must uphold the core values of the Medical Laboratory Science, advising the graduands to show humility and respect to their senior colleagues.

    Emeribe said the quality of service delivery made the council to be first member of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) in West and Central Africa, with a mandate to accredit and regulate medical laboratory schools in Africa.

     

  • “IJN” scientists in a massively inhospitable environment for science – an epilogue

    “IJN” scientists in a massively inhospitable environment for science – an epilogue

    Religion is the opium of the people (but it is also) the soul of a soulless world.
    Karl Marx

    The University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana is one of the best research and teaching universities in the U.S. and the world. It is a Christian denominational institution. Its leading social and natural scientists are first rate scholars and researchers. To teach and do research in this fine institution, it is not required that you should be a Christian, though of course if you are a Christian and also a top-flight scientist, Notre Dame will be very pleased to have you among its distinguished faculty. At this institution, both Christians and non-Christians have absolutely no obligation to attend church worship, prayer vigils or revivalist crusades since these are not part of the essential work and identity of the institution as is the case with our own Redeemer’s or Covenant University. As far as I know, there is not a single “IJN scientist” on the faculty of Notre Dame. In our country, “IJN scientists” are, by a long shot, the majority among men and women of science in our tertiary institutions.

    I openly admit it: I am being very, very deliberately provocative in coining this term, “IJN scientists”. This of course then necessitates providing a working definition of the term. To this, I say that an “IJN scientist” is a highly formally qualified, highly formally credentialized scientist who believes that since God is in control, since In Jesus’ Name nothing is impossible, you can still do science, you can still produce scientists of the next generation in an environment that is extremely inhospitable to science. This of course is total nonsense: you cannot do quality science, you cannot produce quality scientists of the next generation in an environment in which the absolute minimal conditions for doing science don’t exist – as in our country at the present time. The world has never seen and will probably never see scientific work of quality and usefulness to human beings where you have no infrastructures, no water, no electricity and all you have as a scientist is your faith that God is in control and somehow you will become and remain a great woman or man of science.

    Let me expatiate further on this term, “IJN scientists”. If there are no “IJN scientists” at Notre Dame, this is largely due to the fact that in the U.S. as in the other leading scientific and Christian nations of the world, there are no “IJN scientists”. These countries spend colossal sums on science and science education. And they have excellent environments for doing and teaching science. In a formal sense, they are Christian nations and indeed many of their top scientists are Christians. As a matter of fact, one can imagine that when such scientists that are also Christians submit grant applications to the National Science Foundation (NSF), they may pray to God for the success of their grant applications. But they know that if they don’t get the much-needed grant, no amount of prayers and vigils will advance their research projects. What is the basis of this assertion? Simple: in the leading scientific and Christian nations of the planet, you cannot simply say God is in control when your colleagues who get the prestigious grants are producing landmark scientific research while you produce nothing of merit, nothing of value. This means that “IJN scientists” are produced only  in a country like ours where you can be considered a great man or woman of science when your last scientific work of value was done years and decades ago when conditions were far less dire and inhospitable for doing and teaching science.

    At this stage, the careful reader might have noticed that I am making, indeed I am insisting on a distinction between “IJN scientists” and non-IJN scientists both of whom are Christians (or Moslems or Judaists) and both of whom believe in the existence of God. In this, I am returning to my insistence in my series on religion and science, faith and rationality, that though they are fundamentally different operations of the human mind and express often quite opposed dimensions of human thought and sensibility, religion and science are not incompatible. I am returning to this point here because I got many emails from readers who gave passionate arguments trying to convince me to change my view and accept that religion and science have little or nothing to do with each other. In fact one of such interlocutors went as far as to suggest that if great scientists like Newton and Einstein were also believers in the existence of God, that does not mean that science and religion are compatible. All it means, according to this interlocutor, is that Newton and Einstein managed to effectively keep God out of their scientific work!

    But I remain unconvinced by this argument, this insistence that the religion and science are incompatible. In their most penetrating and beneficial forms, both religion and science entail extraordinary feats of intellectual and psychic energy; they both entail hard toil and considerable creativity of thought and imagination. I think fellow atheists who insist on the absolute separation of the two misrecognize this fact; probably, they take all forms and expressions of religion as mystification, especially when, as in contemporary Nigerian Christianity, there are legions upon legions of charlatans, swindlers and impostors at the highest level of the pastorate. But religion has a rich, ambiguous and complex place in human affairs. Which is why I have nothing but the greatest admiration for such schools and movements of religious thought and action as Martin Luther King’s Southern Leadership Christian Council (SLCC), Liberation Theology in Latin America and the centuries of work that the order of Franciscans, with their vows of poverty, did among the poor and the wretched of Europe. In these expressions and movements of radical and progressive religious expression and activism, we are far from the laziness, the mendacity, the bad faith of our “IJN scientists” in invoking God while nothing of scientific value is being produced, while indeed the masses of laboring and suffering Nigerians are being looted dry to the skin of bare life.

    Of course, I am only too aware of the fact that the distinction that I am making between one type of religion and another, between, on the one hand, the true saints and intellectuals in and of religion and, on the other hand, the holy charlatans and swindlers is difficult to sustain in our country at the present time, with perhaps one or two notable exceptions. For any thinking man or woman of religious disposition in our country today, it is difficult to look at the total darkness, the complete decay that envelops religion and be willing to accept my insistence that not all that we have in the heritage of religion in this country and the world is rotten. For I suspect very much that this is why many of the fellow atheists who wrote me pleaded so passionately for me to not provide an alibi, a reprieve for the kind of religion we have in this country today. But as I have said on other occasions in this column, I have lived long enough to have known a time and a form consciousness when religion was not, by and large, the rotten moral and spiritual sinkhole that it has become in our country at the present time. At any rate, against certain schools of hidebound and narrowly defined atheism, I insist absolutely that at certain levels and forms of exertions and operations of the human mind and imagination, religion demands and gets the same kind of hard, dedicated and venerable work that we associate with science and scientists.

    This leads me to my concluding thoughts in this piece, thoughts having to do with belief in the existence or non-existence of God. Frankly speaking, while this issue has deep and fascinating intellectual, moral and social implications for us in Nigeria and all of humankind, it has not been of any particular interest to me, either in the series on religion and science or in this prologue to that series. I believe that it is not because of belief or unbelief in the existence of God that one is a either a good or a mediocre scientist. They may invoke God, but show me the man or woman who becomes a truly brilliant and great scientist who has not worked hard and long to reach that position and I will take back my words. If a given person scientist gives the glory to God, that’s fine with me; all I will say or do is tell such a person to become lazy and complacent and see what happens. Thus, the bottom line for me is human effort and inventiveness riding on the cusp of solidarity with the most oppressed and marginalized of our country, our continent and the world.

    This, by the way, is why in the piece on Dr. Adah Igonoh I did not bother in the least to raise and settle the question one way or another whether she was saved by divine intervention or by her rigorous and herculean pursuit of the remedies available through medical science. If she privileges divine intervention, that is her right and that’s fine with me, as long as readers of the piece did not fail to note the great emphasis I placed on the extraordinary work of rationality that she also expended. That is why, even though I suspect that she may not like this, I will still say that I do not see her as an “IJN scientist” who, even as the environment for doing and training scientists in our country worsens and worsens, are content to declare victory in the fading shadow of what science once was in our country: a practice, a tradition, an intimation that indicated that we were on our way to becoming one of the medium level scientific and technological powers in the world.

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Scientists fault new Ondo laboratory

    Scientists fault new Ondo laboratory

    The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) in Ondo State and the Board of the State Specialist Hospital, Akure, have disagreed on the establishment of the Hematology/Virology Research Laboratory in the hospital.

    The research laboratory was established about two months ago to run as a parallel one with the main laboratory, which is over 20 years old.

    AMLSN said instead of focusing on research, the new laboratory was rendering services provided by the main laboratory.

    Last week, members of the association protested and shut the new laboratory, until policemen intervened.

    They accused the management of employing unqualified persons to manage the new laboratory, adding that this had led to inaccurate test results, poor diagnosis and grievous consequences.

    The association alleged that fees paid by patients at the new laboratory were being paid to a doctor, instead of the state government’s account.

    It threatened to get a court order sealing the “illegal laboratory”.

    A worker at the hospital, who pleaded for anonymity, said: “The government was informed by the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Dr. Niran Ikuomola, and the Permanent Secretary of the Hospital Board, Dr. Ojo, that the place was established for research, but medical diagnosis, treatment monitoring and prognosis are being done there and the results are misleading because they are conducted by unqualified personnel.

    “Several patients have lost their lives or had their condition worsened due to poor handling of their laboratory tests. For example, a physician requested a liver function test to be carried out on his patient, but a totally different test, LIPID PROFILE, was carried out on the patient, thereby wasting the patient’s blood sample and money. These are some of the cases that happened at the State Specialist Hospital, Akure.

    “The management told doctors to stop directing patients to the main laboratory, but to the new one in order to make illegal profits.”

    AMLSN State Chairman Prince Adedire Adeyinka said the association had written to Governor Olusegun Mimiko and the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, on the alleged illegality.

    Adeyinka said: “We were filled with outrage when some physicians accused the main laboratory of issuing misleading test results. We probed the matter and were shocked when we confirmed that the Hematology/Virology Research Laboratory, headed by Dr. P.O. Osho, in collaboration with some unqualified personnel, had been issuing out laboratory results with the laboratory request form used by the main laboratory.

    “As if that was not enough, patients now pay directly to Osho and charges for investigations are more than the normal charges at the main laboratory.

    “The Packed Cell Volume (PCV) of a patient was analysed to be 37 per cent by the research laboratory and the result was signed by Osho. The same patient’s sample was subjected to proper analysis on the same day by qualified and licensed medical laboratory professionals and found to be 25 per cent.

    “It is worthy of note that the difference in the results is significant and is capable of causing damage to a patient’s health, due to wrong treatment.

    “The Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria Act 11, 2003, stipulates that only medical laboratory scientists, technicians and assistants are qualified and licensed to work in any medical laboratory. Section 2, subsection 2 (5 and 6) of the same act also states that ‘it is an offence punishable by fine and imprisonment for a person who is not a member of the profession of medical laboratory science to practice as such in expectation of reward’.

    “It also states that where a corporate body consents, act negligently or connives with the defaulter to act as such, the corporate body or its officer(s) acting on its behalf shall be liable and punished accordingly.”

    Demanding immediate closure of the new laboratory, Olayinka said the health commissioner intervened several times but the management insisted on operating the laboratory.

    Osho said: “We have written to the government about this case and we await a panel to be set up to look into these allegations.”

    The CMD said the new laboratory had come to stay, stressing that it was in line with the management’s policies.

    He said the laboratory was manned by professional.

    Efforts to speak with the health commissioner failed.