African Medical laboratories have set in motion efforts to put them on the world map.

This first-ever push for accreditation of Africa’s medical laboratories was launched yesterday at the start of a 3-day workshop that brought together health officials from 12 African countries and top global health bodies in Kigali.

The programme aims at strengthening health systems, improve patient care through better training and expand diagnostic tests.

The development was hailed as an historic step that will lead to the provision of better health care.

"Accreditation and quality of laboratory services is extremely important not only because it keeps us on a constant search of improving quality, but also because it demands of us to be excellent centers of quality health care,” said Health Minister Dr. Richard Sezibera while opening the workshop.

"It is not fair that anyone should be exposed to false (laboratory) results because of lack of quality.”

It was revealed that just a handful of Africa’s laboratories, especially from South Africa, are currently accredited. 

Many African medical labs are said to lack equipment, proper funding, better training for workers, and orderly management.

Prof. El-Hadj Belabbes, HIV Lab Officer of the World Health Organisation (WHO) inter-country support team for central Africa said the meeting aimed at unveiling a blueprint towards the path of accreditation, obtaining key stakeholders’ support and, show-casing a task-based training programme for lab improvement.

"Through the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), CDC has worked with Ministries of Health all over Africa to strengthen laboratory systems,” said Dr. Deborah Birx, Director of CDC’s global AIDS programme. 

CDC is the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Today marks a historic moment for Africa in patient care as it rolls the WHO-AFRO laboratory accreditation scheme providing a step-wise approach to improving laboratory quality management,” observed Dr. Birx.

WHO-AFRO and CDC, also partners in the programme, fall under PEPFAR.

A subsequent press release notes that under the guidance of the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) and CDC, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) will assign volunteer American lab professionals while the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative will help implement action-oriented training.

WHO-AFRO has established a five-step accreditation process starting with on-site assessment followed by training and education based on identified areas.

WHO Rwanda Representative Jack Abdoulie said that the programme will serve to empower managers to initiate lab improvements in the most cost effective way possible.

"The larger the number of accredited laboratories throughout the continent, the greater the assurance we can have of the existence of high levels of compliance with the prerequisite standards of quality which all laboratory services must have in order to be credible,” Abdoulie added.

The meeting brought together over 100 experts and policy makers from Rwanda, Botswana, Cameron, Ethiopia, Senegal, Zambia and Uganda.

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