IN a nationwide exercise aimed at ensuring that medical laboratories in the country generate accurate, reliable and reproducible test results, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) has sealed 938 substandard and unregistered medical laboratory facilities in 17 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Registrar of the council, Mrs. Elizabeth Okonkwo, disclosed this at the weekend after the council's inspection of medical laboratory facilities in Borno, Ebonyi, Nasarawa and Rivers states.

She alleged the sealed medical laboratories were found deficient in facilities and churned out test results that could misguide the clinician in arriving at proper diagnosis.

Okonkwo said: "We have inspected 2,131 laboratories in 17 states, and Abuja. And out of this number, we have closed 938. In these sealed laboratories, practically all their laboratory request forms indicated that they are performing many tests for which they do not have the specified equipment.

"It was particularly irksome to discover that in some of the laboratories human blood was being stored in standard refrigerators. The attendant risks of these makeshift blood banks could only be imagined.

"Reasons for closure also included unethical practices such as culturing of 14 samples in one chocolate agar plate, four samples for sensitivity on one plate. In fact, funny laboratory results were encountered during the inspection exercise."

Giving a rundown of the inspection in the four states, Okonkwo said: "In Borno State, 20 private laboratories and two public laboratories were inspected. The laboratories visited were all in Maiduguri metropolis, the state capital. Out of the 20 private laboratories visited, seven were sealed for various offences ranging from quackery, unethical practices to inadequate equipment and manpower.

"In about three laboratories sealed, a student medical laboratory scientist was in charge and was arrested and handed over to police. Two other similar cases were recorded in hospital-based laboratories, where technicians were in charge of running full medical laboratory services. They were not spared by the inspection team, which handed them over to the law enforcement agents."

The MLSCN chief added: "In Ebonyi State, 41 private laboratories were inspected, including the Federal Medical Centre, Abakaliki. The inspected laboratories were within Abakaliki, the state capital and Afikpo, the second largest town in the state. The total laboratories sealed were 26, which is 63.4 per cent.

"A total of 16 laboratories were inspected in Nasarawa State; three in Lafia, one in Akwanga, four in Keffi and eight in Maraba, Karu Area.

"In Rivers State, 74 laboratories were inspected and 25 sealed for various reasons, including unethical practice, corner-cutting, lack of relevant equipment and outright quackery."

Okonkwo added: "We want to ensure that these facilities do not open until they put right all the indicated anomalies. They will only reopen when they have fulfilled all the deficiencies in their report."