Laboratory council vows to end quackery

The Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN), has expressed worry over the infiltration of the profession by quacks and has vowed to fight against them.

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Registrar of MLSCN, Dr Tosan Erhabor, told the Newsmen in an interview in Abuja that the council would not fold its arms and watch quacks destroy the profession.

Erhabor said the council had introduced some measures like Quick Response (QR) code and embossed photo to identify quacks.

He said that digitising its operations, amongst other distinct security features would go a long way in eliminating quackery in the system.

“This is done to prevent quacks from accessing and forging it certificates and identity.

“In order to stamp out quackery, MLSCN has visited 22 states, inspected 1,908 medical laboratories across the six geo-political zones of the country.

“We also monitored 323 medical laboratories, sealed 464 medical laboratories, made some arrests and prosecuted some of the arrested quacks,” he said.

According to him, MLSCN is planning to ramp up In-vitro Diagnostics (IVD) validation in order to guarantee quality test reagents in Nigeria and also check quackery in the country.

“The IVDs validation takes place at the MLSCN IVD Laboratory, Yaba, Lagos.

“Validation is a way of regulating production, importation, sales and stocking of diagnostic laboratory reagents and chemicals.

“Validation prevents fake and substandard diagnostic reagents from being used as fake reagents are a major cause of erroneous test results.

“MLSCN IVD Laboratory, Yaba, Lagos is a first of its kind in West Africa,” Erhabor said.

The MLSCN registrar added that the laboratory regulates the production, importation, sales and stocking of diagnostic laboratory reagents, chemicals and laboratory equipment produced locally or imported into the country.

NAN/Wumi