Situation

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged many public health systems throughout the globe and continues to have an immense public health impact. According to the World Health Organization, as of September 2020, nearly a million deaths were attributed to COVID-19 worldwide. Nigeria is one of the African countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly 60,000 cases at this point in time.

The ability to contain outbreaks at their source through proactive and timely testing enables public health authorities to minimize the impact of COVID-19 within their county. Akesis Health Nigeriea worked to support the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC) in expanding the scope of testing for COVID-19. This was especially important to ensure that the NCDC was able to provide COVID-19 testing for all states and all citizens.

Solution 

As Nigeria worked to build up its testing capacity, Akesis Health Nigeria was able to support testing throughout the country by facilitating speedy transport of samples from collection sites to testing laboratories (center).

To do so, Akesis Health Nigeria re-directed parts of its transportation fleet typically used for drug and lab commodity transportation in order to help close this critical gap in the country.

Results 

Akesis Health Nigeria’s contributions to enhancing COVID-19 sample transport helped the NCDC improve its response to the pandemic by minimizing the time between sample collection and diagnosis. This, in turn, optimized the availability of accurate data to inform public health decisions in Nigeria.