New push for better quality laboratories

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."

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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.



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