MONROVIA – As part of his current annual Volunteer Services in Liberia and other parts of Africa, Liberian scientist, Dr. Dougbeh Christopher Nyan is hosting series of public health engagements at the community clinics level. Within the last two weeks, Dr. Nyan has conducted workshops at the JSM Dwana Memorial Community Clinic in Jacobs Town and the Goodness of Good Medical Clinic in Paynesville, Monrovia.
“Community clinics play a crucial role in public health response. Infectious disease, for example, start in the communities, then spread from community to community. That’s a reason why it is important for community clinicians have a public health mindset as they attend to patients in their communities.” Dr. Nyan said.
He added that, “the quicker the community clinics can recognize the trend of a disease, the rapid the public health response can be mounted.”
Dr. Nyan, the globally acclaimed infectious diseases scientist and inventor, has been training clinicians at the community level into “adopting a public health mindset in their patient care clinical duties.”
He lectured clinicians on the “use of techniques and methods to rapidly recognize infectious and non-communicable diseases that are of public health concern. Community clinics should play a major role in the first line of defense when there is a disease outbreak,” Dr. Nyan stressed.
The infectious diseases specialist also taught clinicians about proper packaging of biological specimens and proper transport to central laboratories such as the Reference Laboratory for analysis.
Dr. Nyan emphasized to clinicians that, “proper packaging of biological specimens and transport are important so as to maintain sample integrity for analysis.”
The inventor, said that, “during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Liberia’s testing was most times inaccurate due in part to improper specimens [samples] handling and processing.”
During the Ebola outbreak and the recent COVID-19 Pandemic, Dr. Nyan provided extensive awareness to the populations, diagnostic training, and expert advised on public health regulatory measures to African countries including Liberia.
The globally renowned inventor, Dr. Dougbeh Christopher Nyan, is currently in Liberia perform his annual volunteer-services in clinical laboratory medicine and public health as well as lecturing courses at various academic institutions.
He is the inventor of the US patented rapid multiplex diagnostic test for infectious diseases (the NYAN TEST). Dr. Nyan won the 2017 prestigious African Innovation Award Special Prize for Social Impact for his invention.