By Chioma Umeha
To
ensure national development and effective response to disease outbreaks,
Nigerian scientists and their counterparts from the United States Centre for
Disease Control (CDC) have advocated adequate funding of innovative medical
research.
Specifically,
the scientists urged the three tiers of government, international and private
organisations to provide adequate fund for innovative medical research to
promote national development.
The
scientists, who spoke at the fourth International Scientific Conference of the
Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) in Lagos, maintained that
research was the greatest engine for human development.
In
his remarks at the Conference which had the theme: “Funding Health Research: In
A Depressed Economy”, Professor Simon Taylor-Robinson, a Professor
of Translational Medicine, St. Mary’s Hospital Campus, Imperial College,
London, United Kingdom, said that funding medical research was very
key and crucial in the healthcare system.
Taylor-Robinson
further said that proper funding of health research was a guarantee for
effective healthcare delivery in the country.
“Funding
health research in Nigerian health institutions will give researchers more ideas
on how to detect and investigate surveillance diseases.
“It
is time for all levels of government to improve on their support to the
institute,” he said
He
therefore encouraged Nigeria and other countries to at least devote one per
cent of its GDP to medical research as it would improve healthcare delivery,
save lives and reduce mortality.
On
his part, Prof. Babatunde Salako, Director- General of NIMR, who noted that
research was critical in public health as well as every other aspect of
medicine, said biomedical research alone was capable of unravelling life
mysteries and translating discoveries to sound health and economic prosperity.
He
said medical research in developed countries like the US had generated
effective drugs for lowering cholesterol, controlling blood pressure, and
dissolving artery-clogging blood clots.
Reasoning
that research has led to the emergence of new techniques for heart attack
prevention, including, lifestyle changes that promote cardiovascular health,
the NIMR boss stressed that it would address the challenges facing the
country’s health sector.
Salako
said: “The global progress of the last few decades in the field of Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) has shown that research and innovation are
the only sure pathway to sustainable development.
“NIMR,
as the foremost institute of medical research in the country, should be well
positioned to contribute her quota toward conducting innovative research that
will engender national development.
“The
conduct of medical research should not be viewed as a liability to the nation,
but should be seen as a veritable tool that can be used to attain economic
development and self-reliance.
“Many
developed nations have demonstrated to the world that research is the greatest
engine for human development and a nation,” Salako said.
Similarly,
Prof. Oladosu Ojengbede, an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, called for a
national health research policy that would harmonise all research activities in
the country.
The
Obstetrician urged corporate bodies, organisations and international donors to
support the funding of health research to eliminate some diseases affecting the
health of Nigerians.
Ojengbede,
who works with the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, said that
availability of funding for research purpose would promote application of
knowledge for massive development of the country’s health sector.
“Private
sector is at a vintage position to drive research development,’’ he said,
noting that research and innovation were individually driven in any part of the
world.
