Nigeria will receive coronavirus testing kit from the UN atomic agency

The UN atomic agency is donating coronavirus testing kit worth $4.37 million to Nigeria and other countries.

The United Nations Atomic Agency will be dispatching coronavirus testing equipment to about 40 countries, including Nigeria.

The equipment will help these nations perform a standard test for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19).

This test will involve a technique derived from nuclear science, the atomic agency announced on Wednesday, April 1, 2020.

How the technique works

The technique is a real time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction or real time RT-PCR, Reuters writes.

It is commonly used in developed countries to tell whether someone is infected. It detects the coronavirus' RNA and its genetic fingerprint on a swab sample.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is famous for its nuclear inspection work in countries like Iran, but it also has a mandate to help countries deploy nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

The agency has received requests for assistance with coronavirus testing from 90 member states.

“Dozens of laboratories in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean will receive diagnostic machines and kits, reagents and laboratory consumables to speed up national testing, which is crucial in containing the outbreak,” the IAEA said in a statement.

President Muhammadu Buhari and the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu. [Twitter/@BashirAhmaad]

“They will also receive biosafety supplies, such as personal protection equipment and laboratory cabinets for the safe analysis of collected samples.”

Some of the countries that will receive the first batch of equipment, worth around 4 million euros ($4.37 million) from the IAEA, include Iran, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Thailand, Vietnam, Cuba, Peru, Uruguay Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Madagascar, Namibia, Senegal, Sudan and Togo, among others.

Ramping up testing

Sufficient testing of suspected Covid-19 cases is a challenge in Nigeria and most of the developed world, amid advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that nations need to ramp up testing.

Not enough people are being tested for Covid-19 across the world due to inadequate equipment.

IAEA chiefs on the sidelines of a meeting (AFP)

Nigeria currently has 174 confirmed Covid-19 cases spread across 13 states, including its commercial capital of Lagos and its administrative capital of Abuja.

“IAEA staff are working hard to ensure that this critical equipment is delivered as quickly as possible where it is most needed,” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said.