Medical Equipment Donation will Benefit Nigerian Military, Civilians

ADF STAFF

The U.S. government has donated $144,000 in personal protective equipment (PPE) to strengthen COVID-19 prevention measures at Nigerian military and civilian medical facilities in Lagos, Kano, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states and the Federal Capital Territory.

During a handover ceremony at the Nigerian Air Force Hospital in Abuja, Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary Babangida Hussaini thanked the U.S. for its continued help in funding research and stimulating job creation for health care workers during the pandemic.

“The Defence Referral Laboratory, which was recently reaccredited with state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, was established with the support of the U.S. government, and this has greatly enhanced the capacity of our personnel leading to groundbreaking research studies” that help manage infectious diseases, Hussaini said, according to a U.S. Embassy press release.

“This donation [will] further enhance the ability of our front-line medical staff in the fight to curtail COVID-19 and to ensure that staff go about their duties with minimal risk of being exposed to harmful infectious agents,” he added.

The U.S. has a long history of supporting Nigeria’s health system. More than 20 years of American support helped Nigeria eradicate the wild polio virus earlier this year, and the U.S. has donated more than $54 million to Nigeria since the first COVID-19 infection was confirmed there in February.

“We are living in historic times, as both our countries confront a global pandemic, observe how citizens exercise their rights to peaceful protest, and witness how our respective governments respond to calls for social justice and better governance,” said Kathleen FitzGibbon, U.S. deputy chief of mission in Nigeria.

In August, the U.S. delivered 200 ventilators to Nigeria to help make up a shortfall in the lifesaving equipment. Shortly after the pandemic hit Nigeria, the country of about 196 million people had only 500 ventilators, a machine that can help extend the lives of critically ill patients with severe breathing problems. A ventilator moves oxygen in and out of the lungs through a tube inserted in a patient’s airway.

The U.S. helped Nigeria’s Ministry of Health deliver the ventilators to treatment centers and intensive care units throughout the country and assisted with COVID-19 surveillance efforts.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has also donated $1.4 million in medical equipment and training materials to improve the skills of front-line health care workers in northern Nigeria’s Bauchi and Sokoto states.

The materials help address long-standing national issues pertaining to reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, nutrition and malaria services, Paul McDermott, who leads USAID Nigeria’s Health, Population and Nutrition Office, told ADF in an email. The spread of COVID-19 has not seemed to exacerbate those issues, although lockdown measures have led to a reduction in immunization services, which Nigeria’s government has plans to improve, he said.

The donated items, including training manuals, job aids, equipment and supplies, will be used in more than 360 medical facilities across the two states.

The materials will be used “during onsite and follow-up training to improve health workers’ practical skills and competencies,” McDermott said. “The equipment includes anatomical models used to simulate real-life situations and provide an opportunity for health care workers to gain practical experience in situations where real persons cannot be used as models for training.”