The National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) has inducted fifteen recently recruited Laboratory, Research, and Diagnostics young Liberian scientists into the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) to serve as technical personnel.
This will increase and strengthen the laboratory and research diagnostic capacities, shorten results-reporting time, and strengthen the Outbreak Preparedness and Response efforts, among others.
Speaking Friday, January 17, 2025 at NPHIL in Paynesville, the Director General of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia, Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan said in just four months, the institution recruited and added fifteen more scientists to the already five, totaling to twenty technical personnel at the NRL.
According to him, the newly inducted scientists, specializing in research, laboratory, and diagnostic science, come from diverse medical science backgrounds in and out of Liberia.
Dr. Nyan said Liberia has the capacity to manage public health emergencies and dispelled the notion that the country lacks qualified personnel, saying many young Liberians have traveled abroad to study medical science in countries like China, India, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The head of NPHIL said these professionals represent untapped potential for advancing the nation’s health sector. During the inducted ceremony, the young scientists took oath to dedicate their skills to enhancing Liberia’s public health system, further strengthening the nation’s preparedness for emergencies.
Also speaking, Fahn Taweh, National Reference Laboratory (NRL) Director said the NRL started in 2005 with only two lab technologists performing lab analysis at the John F. Kennedy Hospital which was called the Central Public Health Lab.
“In 2008, the leadership saw it wise to increase the number of staff at the lab because there were two persons and by then, we were only testing for three perimeters,” he said.
Director Taweh said in the same year (2008), the management brought additional four laboratory technologists and scientists which brought the total number to six, making the lab fully operational.
He said from the outbreak of the COVID-19, Liberia and the rest of the world saw it important to have a standardized lab that will perform all the analyses that are needed as a country for public health intervention.
“The issue of retention has been a great challenge we have seen in the sector. So, then we have the number of people reduced for which we went back to five staff,” Taweh said. The National Reference Laboratory (NRL) Director said that despite having only five staff in the NRL, they were able to develop the multiplex platform in which they tested twenty-eight pathogens by using a single sample.
By Prince Saah
