Nigeria Records Reduction in Inter-State Sample Referrals Through Laboratory Strengthening-IHVN

By Ojoma Akor

Nigeria has recorded a sharp reduction in the number of diagnostic samples it moves between states and outside the country for confirmation, following efforts to strengthen the country’s public health laboratory system, the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN) has said.

IHVN’s Head of Clinical Laboratory Field Operations and Project Manager for the Resolve to Save Lives Project, Joy Shamang, said the improvement in select states is being driven in part by the Resolve to Save Lives Project, implemented by the IHVN in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health’s Medical Laboratory Services Directorate and the Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC).

She said the initiative has helped address long-standing weaknesses in laboratory referral pathways and turnaround times.

According to Shamang, the project has transformed what was once a frustrating reality for frontline laboratory scientists, many of whom had to work without functional referral systems that could move specimens efficiently to laboratories with the capacity to confirm suspected diseases.

“Every disease confirmation begins from the laboratory,” she said, adding that a country cannot effectively contain diseases it cannot quickly and accurately confirm.

She explained that laboratory system strengthening goes beyond equipping laboratories with machines, saying it involves ensuring that personnel, infrastructure, quality management systems, governance structures and referral networks function as an integrated system.

“Laboratory system strengthening is about ensuring that people, infrastructure, quality systems, governance, and everything behind our laboratories work together seamlessly,” Shamang said.

A major achievement of the project, she noted, has been establishing and inaugurating State Laboratory Technical Working Groups in Bayelsa, Kano, Nasarawa and the Federal Capital Territory. The groups have created functional subnational governance structures for coordinating laboratory quality and specimen referral systems, particularly in preparation for epidemic response.

Before these interventions, Shamang said, such coordination mechanisms were either weak or nonexistent in some of the targeted settings. The new structures have positioned states to respond more effectively to outbreaks by improving coordination, quality management and access to diagnostic services.

She described a strong laboratory system as a cornerstone of Nigeria’s health security, noting that every public health emergency begins with questions that only laboratories can reliably answer: What is making a patient sick? What pathogen is responsible? And how is it spreading?

“Strengthening laboratory systems positions a laboratory to quickly and accurately answer questions that will provide direction on the kind of prevention and intervention measures that should be in place,” she said.

For epidemic preparedness and pandemic response, she added that the speed and reliability of laboratory testing can determine how quickly health authorities recognize and contain a threat.

She said, “Strong laboratory systems will allow us to detect diseases early and confirm diagnosis accurately and reliably. It enables us to monitor disease, its spread, and provide evidence to public health authorities on how best to respond to outbreaks. The faster we detect a threat, the greater our chances of containing it before it becomes a full-blown epidemic or pandemic.”

IHVN implemented the Resolve to Save Lives project in two phases. The first ran from 2020 to 2021, while the second phase commenced in 2024 and ran through 2025. Resolve to Save Lives funded both phases.