RECOGNITION STARTS IN NIGERIA

The path to national action—and eventual World Health Organization recognition—starts with Nigerian leadership, Nigerian science, and Nigerian evidence. Working with the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, clinicians, researchers, laboratories, and community health partners, NPI completed its first field mission to confront a disease that is still rarely tested for and routinely missed.

Rapid diagnostic tests provided by TECHLAB, Inc. were first validated at the Laboratory of Parasitology & Genomics of Neglected Tropical Diseases at Adekunle Ajasin University and then taken into the field in Ondo State. Children’s stool samples were tested and analyzed in a community setting, connecting laboratory science with the realities facing families, clinicians, and health authorities.This work does not yet measure Nigeria’s national burden. It delivers a crucial first step: local diagnostic experience, field evidence, and a Nigerian coalition capable of taking the work further.The next phase is to expand testing, strengthen surveillance and case management, and generate the evidence the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare needs to drive national prioritization and engage the World Health Organization on formal recognition of cryptosporidiosis as a Neglected Tropical Disease.