Under the Fleming Fund Regional Grant, the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) and partners are taking a significant stride toward enhancing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance training. As part of Phase I of the Qualifying the Workforce for AMR Surveillance (QWArS) project, a Master Trainer Training Track has been created to build the capacity of… Read More
Following an initial site visit in March 2022 that focussed on the installation and commissioning of the high-capacity incinerator at South Sudan’s National Public Health Laboratory, the ASLM and the ministries of health for South Sudan and Zambia recommended a second visit by the Zambian healthcare waste management team to consolidate this capacity. This second… Read More
LabCoP ECHO sessions between September and December 2022 featured best practices at the clinic-laboratory interface to optimise the tuberculosis (TB)/HIV diagnostic cascade, optimise the diagnostic network in Gabon, and integrate hepatitis C testing on existing TB and HIV infrastructure in Nigeria. LabCoP also launched the Diagnostic Network Optimisation (DNO) sub-Community of Practice (sub-CoP) in collaboration… Read More
ASLM recently sat down with Dr Kingsley Odiabara, Director of the Medical Laboratory Services Division in Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health, to discuss their Global Fund (GF) application experience. The GF is a worldwide international financing and partnership organization formed to defeat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria and ensure a healthier, safer, and more equitable future… Read More
What’s New Welcoming the Botswana, Mozambique and Sao Tome Country Teams The LabCoP Management team is pleased to announce that Botswana, Mozambique, and Sao Tome have joined the LabCoP family! They will perform their first self-assessment in the coming weeks. Please join us in welcoming Botswana, Mozambique, and Sao Tome to the LabCoP family. Bem-vindos,… Read More
Delays in the return of HIV viral load (VL) test results to recipients of care present missed opportunities for their engagement into clinical care and, ultimately, the improvement of health outcomes. A timely return of results is often hindered by several logistical complexities that may potentially be overcome through the use of technologies like short… Read More
ASLM continues to advance laboratory quality management systems (LQMS) in Africa through regional approaches and collaboration with various stakeholders and partners, such as the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and ministries of health (MoH). LQMS is key to strengthening national laboratory systems to support the detection,… Read More
From 20-23 June 2022, the medical laboratory systems self-assessment workshop was held in the conference room of Hotel Limaniya Golf in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The participating laboratories self-assessed the scale-up of the HIV viral load test. In attendance were the LabCoP management team, the main directorates in charge of medical biology laboratories (DGS; DAP; LNSP;… Read More
What’s New at LabCoP LabCoP Launches the New DNO Sub-CoP The Diagnostic Network Optimisation (DNO) sub-community of practice (CoP) is a collaboration between ASLM and the Foundation for Innovative Diagnostics (FIND) and aims to bring together countries and stakeholders to share challenges, solutions and best practices on optimising national diagnostic networks. DNO is a geospatial… Read More
The recent Lancet Commission Report highlighted gaps in access to diagnostics, with only 47% having access globally. Integrated diagnostics, a LabCoP priority, may address this access gap. A previous assessment of seven LabCoP countries in 2021 revealed that some countries had piloted integrated laboratory services and could be reference points for other countries. However, there… Read More
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