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AFRICA: New push for better quality laboratories
Source: IRIN
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NAIROBI, 30 July 2009 (IRIN) -
Several African governments have launched a drive to strengthen the continent's laboratories to a standard that will enable them to gain accreditation from the United Nations World Health Organization
(WHO). "Labs are vital to patient care - they are used for monitoring, diagnosis, treatment and surveillance," said Anna Murphy, a medical technologist from the American Society for Clinical
Pathology, which will send volunteer lab professionals from the United States to help train staff and standardize labs in Africa. Only a few African laboratories have WHO accreditation. Experts at
a launch of the initiative in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, this week, said better quality laboratory services would help lower the death toll from treatable diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and
malaria, which kill more than five million Africans annually. Research has also found that more laboratory monitoring is needed to prevent HIV-positive patients from being switched to more
expensive second-line ARV regimens unnecessarily. "Stronger labs with better systems and practices in place will mean better patient care," Murphy told IRIN/PlusNews. "If the trial-and-error
element is removed from diagnosis through the use of high quality labs, treatment can be swift, easing the burden of illness on the patient and their loved ones." Read more: Critical need for more viral load testing Modernization of labs to boost HIV/AIDS campaign What price a CD4 test? The programme, supported by the WHO Regional
Office for Africa (WHO-AFRO) and the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), will use a five-step process allowing labs to gradually receive credit for improvement until
they attain full accreditation. One of the reasons so few African labs have gained accreditation is the time-consuming nature of current procedures. The launch was attended by policy-makers and
experts from Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda and Zambia. kr/ks/he© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian
news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org
