By Jana-Astrid Schäfer
GENEVA, May 29, 2020 – The Division of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics of the Rowan University’s Rowan College at Burlington County has invited Liberian infectious disease expert Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan to speak on the COVID-19 Pandemic Response in Liberia and Africa.
According to the invitation from the institution’s Division of Science and Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, Dr. Nyan will speak on his “perspective on the evolution of the pandemic outside of the US, what is making Liberia’s case unique, and how Africa’s success in dealing with the [COVID-19] pandemic can be explained.” The event will be conducted via video conferencing due to State lockdown regulations.
Rowan University is a public research university located in Glassboro, New Jersey, with a medical campus in Stratford, New Jersey, and medical and academic campuses in Camden, New Jersey. The University’s Rowan College at Burlington County Campus is located in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.
Since the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus virus in Wuhan, China in November 2019, the world has recorded about 6 million confirmed cases and close to 400,000 deaths to date according to data of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Of this number, Africa accounts for some 124,733 confirmed cases and about 3,700 deaths from COVID-19.
Dr. Nyan, an NIH-trained infectious diseases scientist will be speaking to students, faculty and staff of the University on what makes Liberia’s case unique, a country which was one of four West African countries badly hit by the 2014 Ebola outbreak. The country has a very fragile healthcare system and currently records 269 confirmed cases and 27 deaths – with a death rate of 10% Case Fatality Rate, the highest in the West African Sub-region.
When the outbreak was ravaging Europe, Dr. Nyan in March this year called for African countries to lockdown and stay-in-place, warned against using the Fault US-CDC COVID-19 testing kits, promoted the use of locally made mask, and conducted series of COVID-19 public awareness on television and radio throughout the region. A state of emergency was later declared by Liberia’s president to lock down the capital, Monrovia and its surrounding areas, warning of the threat posed by the coronavirus outbreak.
At this Rowan College event, students, faculty and staff will discuss with Dr. Nyan, the characteristic of the response in Africa – its problems, success, and challenges. Dr. Nyan is the inventor of the US patented multiplex test for infectious diseases which detects and identifies HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis virus, Ebola, Coronaviruses, Zika, Dengue and many more. He testified before the US Congress in September 2014 on the Ebola outbreak. Dr. Nyan recently spoke at the Mzuzah African Health Conference organized by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.