‘How UNILAG research helped Ebola containment’

‘How UNILAG research helped Ebola containment’

VICE Chancellor of University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof Rahamon Bello, has stated that the institution’s research finding and results contributed immensely to the containment of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country.

He said this on Tuesday, while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after a media parley held at the senate building of the institution.

  Bello who highlighted the major role of various department of the institutions during the outbreak, stated that the Provost of the College of Medicine, Prof Folasade Ogunsola and her other colleagues was at the forefront in the fight against the scourge.

  According to him, the research result of the institution was applied in the containment of the virus. The UNILAG team handled the initial case during the breakout and since the containment they have been training and retraining health workers on international volunteer mission.

“Recently Ogunsola went to Harvard University to deliver lecture on EVD, and black students at the institution were proud that one of them were able to record such feat. Ogunsola and her colleagues were at the forefront in the fight against Ebola and through the institution’s research results Ebola virus was contained.”

   “During the 2012/2013 convocation ceremonies, a total of 89 students finished in the first class division out of the total of 9,729. In the postgraduate degrees category, 24 year-old Hallowed Oluwadara Olaoluwa led the pack of 105 recipients with a 5.00 Cumulative Grade Point emerging as UNILAG and indeed Africa’s youngest Ph.D holder. All these and many more are an attestation of our commitment to vigorously maintaining the university’s tradition of excellence and vision.

 He continued, “It is in continuation of this tradition of excellence that our institution has intensified efforts towards high impact research. The Research and Innovation office is already operational and is designed to assist in furthering multidisciplinary research grant acquisitions and the marketing and dissemination of research results. When fully developed, it also will serve as the main funding platform for both researchers and the university through commercialisation of research results. Many researches are ongoing to address the need of the university and our country at large.”

He said both the students, teaching and non-teaching staff of the institutions has contributed to the advancement of the university as evident in several awards received from Lagos State government and other corporate organisations.

“Examples of these feats are the TWAS Research Grant received by Prof O.B. Familoni and Dr. C.Isanbor of our Faculty of Science and 2014-2016 awards of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund received by two research led by the Director of our Academic Planning, a Professor of Botany, Oluwatoyin Temitayo Ogundipe among others.

Source: The Guardian