United States government has donated an influenza diagnostic laboratory to Nigeria.
U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders, made the presentation to the Minister of Health, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, at the Asokoro General Hospital Abuja on Friday.
The laboratory, which is to be managed by the Nigerian Institute of Virology (NIV), is designed to detect and proffer solution in a situation of avian influenza outbreak.
Sanders disclosed that in 2008 the U.S. government allocated $7 million to help Nigeria prevent and control any outbreak of the avian influenza disease.
The ambassador said that the U.S. government recognises the hazardous consequences of avian influenza outbreak. She said avian influenza poses both health and economic challenges to Nigeria.
She said the danger of the avian influenza lies in the fact that the virus affects both human beings and poultry.
Sanders said that by December 2008, there were 298 confirmed outbreaks of avian influenza in poultry affecting 26 out of 36 states in the country. She added that the pandemic left many farmers without a source of livelihood as 1.3 million birds died as a result of the outbreak.