The Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital has acquired an ultramodern molecular laboratory spearheading the purposeful pursuit by the institution to make the hospital a medical destination center.
The idea of aggressively creating the enabling environment equipped with the diagnostic tools to enable the medical professionals to address the myriad issues there rather than patients having to travel overseas to seek solutions.
The acquisition and installation of the laboratory is yet another validation to promises made by the incumbent Chief Medical Director (CMD), Dr. Joseph Ugboaja, of what he will do if he is called to serve.
There is an urgency on the CMD and his team to wean the institution of any semblance of lethargy in its operation. That is also part of an institutional acculturation effort to ensure service with a positive attitude.
The new ultramodern molecular laboratory is a core necessarily to advance the vision of the incumbent CMD and his team.
A cursory investigation regarding the utility of molecular laboratory indicates that in medicine, “a laboratory test that checks for certain genes, proteins, or other molecules in a sample of tissue, blood, or other body fluid. Molecular tests also check for certain changes in a gene or chromosome that may cause or affect the chance of developing a specific disease or disorder, such as cancer”.
Vision newspapers enquired further on why molecular laboratory is so important to medicine. The response also makes it sine qua non in modern medical practice. It says that “by allowing the detection of pathogens not or difficult to cultivate, molecular methods have revolutionized medical microbiology, mainly for the diagnosis of viral diseases. Indeed, virus culture requires immortalized human or animal cell lines and may take several weeks”.
At this pace, NAUTH is definitely ready for the advancement in to the next level.