Noguchi, JICA train health professionals on enhancing laboratory skills

The University of Ghana Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research has commenced a training program for some selected West African health care professionals to help improve their laboratory skills in the area of disease surveillance and prevention.

The 8-week program which is in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), will feature intensive and detailed training of 12 selected participants in modern laboratory technology.

Addressing the participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia, Director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute, Prof. Abraham Kwabena Anang stressed the importance of training more specialists and biomedical technicians since they play an important role in diagnosing and treating infections.

“We have to acknowledge that to be successful in this world, one has to be as simple as possible. The difficulty with the Ebola virus was that its signs and symptoms were not known. The lesson from that is that, for us to make sustainable headway in global health security, we must be able to make diagnosis as accurate as possible. The Noguchi Memorial Institution already has a mandate and the purpose of this training fits into it with the enhancing of laboratory skills and the conducting of training. Securing sufficient healthcare workers and developing their abilities are important elements to an efficient healthcare system and that is what we are trying to build at Noguchi with the support of the Japanese government.”

Adding her voice, Senior Representative for the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Ozawa Maki assured the institute of continuous support from the Japanese government to bring quality and accessible universal healthcare to Ghanaians.

“Noguchi and JICA have a long history since 1969 and so collaborating with the medical research centre as well as contributing to the public health care system is a joy. And with the global recognition that the institute has acquired over the years, Noguchi is now the pride and a success story for the Japanese government. So as Noguchi plays an important role in strengthening technical capacity for disease control not only in the country but also in the neighbouring country, we believe this joint program is the best way to contribute.”

Lauding the training, representatives from Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia urged all the participants to take the training seriously and learn from each other. They also expressed their gratitude to JICA for sponsoring the program and its continued interest in health-related issues.

The training which will end on March 1, 2019 will help the participants learn the best laboratory practices and the latest innovations from technologists in the bacteriology, parasitology and virology departments of the Noguchi Institute.