The Cuban government and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) have entered a partnership to employ biotechnology in eradicating malaria in Nigeria.
This was disclosed during an official visit of the Cuban Ambassador, Carlose Trejo Sosa, to the Director General of NAFDAC, Paul Orhii, in Abuja, Friday.
The Cuban government has also invited a delegation from NAFDAC, led by Orhii, to visit Cuba in order to cement the relationship and also explore other aspects of medicine.
Responding to questions from journalists, Sosa said: “Because NAFDAC is one of the important agencies in Nigeria, which cares for the wellbeing of the Nigerian population, any type of medicine that will be used in this country has to be approved by NAFDAC.
“Cuba, being a country that is rich in biotechnology, which could be used also for the Nigerian population, of course, we have to come through NAFDAC where we have people that are capable with experience and expertise who will look at the technology and see whether it is good for Nigeria or not.
“I think and I am sure Nigeria has many things to offer Cuba in the aspect of experience and investigation that have been made in this country, which could be of greatest interest to Cuban people.â€
On his part, Orhii said: “Cuba has a very rich cultural heritage and has good ties with Nigeria. But more importantly, from a health perspective, Cuba is the global leader in biotechnology, developing new technologies to fight diseases and most of the technologies they are bringing to fight diseases are more natural because they attack the disease in a more natural way.
“For example, the biolarvaesal programme on malaria that we are talking about is not just spreading chemicals that will broadly kill every other thing that will come on its way, they specifically target some disease causing larvae, all sorts of malaria, and black flies that cause river blindness.
“As a leader in biotechnology in the whole world, I think we have a lot to gain and learn in this relationship. Even on eliminating malaria alone, you cannot put a naira sign. We are talking about eradicating malaria in Nigeria. We know that anti-malaria drugs are the most often used in high volumes in Nigeria because most people in Nigeria suffer from malaria.
“Whatever cost it is, it is minimal compared to what we are going to achieve in this project, he said.â€
dailyindependentnig.com
