GHANA – Africa’s Infectious Disease Scientist Dr. Dougbeh Christopher Nyan has called upon African leaders to solve public health challenges without relying on outsiders during a lecture on outbreak response at the Noguchi Medical Research Institute of the University of Ghana.
Dr. Nyan’s lecture under the theme “Challenges and Prospects in Public Health Response to Outbreaks in (West) Africa – The Case of Ebola, COVID-19, and Monkeypox” aims to highlight the need for Africans to provide tangible solutions to the challenges facing Africa’s public health system.
The Liberian medical scientist Dr. Nyan was awarded a second patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for inventing a rapid diagnostic test that detects multiple infections in less than an hour.
The US patented rapid multiplex real-time isothermal test for infectious diseases (The NYAN-TEST) simultaneously detects and identifies up to 7 infections in one hour using one test including Coronaviruses, HIV/AIDS, malaria, Ebola among other infections.
Dr. Dougbeh Christopher Nyan has been issued a patent for his scientific invention dubbed “Methods for Rapid Detection and Identification of Viral Nucleic Acids” of infectious pathogens that is viral-specific and applicable to other pathogens in detecting genetic materials such as the RNA and DNA.
Speaking at the Noguchi Medical Research Institute, Dr. Nyan’s lecture presented a synopsis of the genetics of the three viruses as well as their mode of transmission and the pathogenesis particularly how the viruses cause their respective diseases in humans.
Dr. Dougbeh Nyan urged national governments to provide needed support to African biomedical scientists and biomedical engineers as they work hard to provide solutions for the continent’s medical and public health problems.
In addition, he urged African governments to support biomedical start-up companies for manufacturing and marketing of Made-in-Africa biomedical products such as testing kits and not depending on the western countries.
“For the past century, Africa has seen a lot of infectious diseases, both emerging and re-emerging diseases like Lassa fever, typhoid fever, yellow fever, malaria, the diarrheal disease and many others that have placed a disproportionate health burden on the continent,” Dr. Nyan noted.
The prominent infectious diseases expert further said that governments should strongly support research and development, and support faculty researchers and student innovation projects that will promote Africa’s advancement in science, medicine and technology.
He outlined that Africa’s fragile health systems, lack of infrastructures, limited number of trained professionals, misallocation of financial resources, and weakness at implementing national health policies are some factors negatively impacting Africa’s preparedness to respond to outbreaks.
In addition, the award-winning medical scientist emphasized that students must be allowed to bring out their crazy ideas and should not be shot down since that crazy idea could be a potential breakthrough invention.
He pointed out that on intellectual property, Africans must protect innovative ideas emerging from the continent and publish African inventors’ works so that Africans receive their due credits.
Dr. Nyan lauded efforts of the African continent in its successful fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Ghana’s success in arresting the recent Marburgvirus outbreak and Nigeria’s public health response to the 2014 Ebola virus transmission into its borders.
Furthermore, the world acclaimed inventor has provided healthcare services in diagnostics, awareness on prevention, and promoted mass vaccination in the United States and Africa to bolster the fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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