2021 WAPCMLS AGM:
Invest in lab scientists & systems- Dr. Okara to African Leaders

Secretary General and Registrar of West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science (WAPCMLS) Dr. Godswill C. Okara has called on African leaders to immediately shoot up investments heavily in laboratory systems and medical lab scientists to scale up national and global preparedness for combating infections diseases.

The latest call on African governments to scale up investment in the development of labs and medical lab scientists by the WAPCMLS Secretary General Dr. Okara comes at the time that West African sub region has been hard-hit with infectious Covid-19, currently struggling to vaccinate its citizens.

Speaking after official opening ceremony of 2021 Annual General and Scientific Meeting of the West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science (WAPCMLS), Ghana Chapter on theme: Postgraduate Medical Laboratory Science Education and Practice in West Africa on Saturday, 17 July, 2021 in Accra, Dr. Okara said the “lab is the engine of room of research and diagnosis, without diagnosis, treatment is a guesswork, the lab is at the heart of definitive treatment of ailments because 21st Century healthcare practice is evidence based”.

Dr. Okara noted that “Over 80% of the empirical data needed for evidence based healthcare practices are generated from labs”.

It presupposes that a nation that does not invest in labs is equal to a shaky foundation and bird without feathers in a decorated cage or an unpaid teacher in a well-furnished classroom. One cannot build something on nothing, the foundation will shake. Therefore, adequate investments in labs and medical lab scientists, is a potent bedrock upon which the health sector of every nation survives.

It is against this background, the WHO has affirmed that the Covid-19 pandemic has “shed light on unsung heroes of the health sector who must be recognised and acknowledged”.

Source : africaneditors.com