Nigeria is the first country to develop Essential Diagnostics List (EDL) in Africa with the help of World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Fund. Following India’s footsteps, this initiative aims to increase country access to affordable diagnostic services, improve patient care, diagnostic capacity and test affordability. Local adaptations of WHO’s Essential Diagnostics List are actionable policy tools to reduce diagnostics access gaps in Low and Middle Income countries (LMIC’s).
Nigeria’s National Essential Diagnostics List (NEDL) enlists:
145 diagnostic tests
comprising 65 general in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) to aid the diagnosis of a range of disease conditions
73 diseases specific IVDs in clinical settings covering primary, secondary, tertiary and national reference laboratories
7 IVDs for screening of blood donations
It also includes 12 general IVDs and 15 diseases specific IVDs for use in community and health settings without laboratories.
Centivis applauds Nigeria’s initiative. We hope to see more countries follow suit.
Do you want to know more about EDL, watch this 2 minute explainer video.