Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 18, 2017 News
Ensuring that the National Reference Laboratory meets international standards is a crucial measure for it to operate independently. Achieving this not only requires that the facility has in place the necessary equipment but also the relevant trained personnel.
Even as the Ministry is working towards ensuring that its personnel are adequately trained, it is also working to ensure that the necessary certification for a laboratory of excellence is fully in place.
“We have certain criteria to meet and we are working with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to do this,” said Minister Cummings during an invited comment to this publication.
The National Reference Laboratory has for sometime been relying heavily on CARPHA to facilitate a number of its tests.
“Normally our specimens will go to CARPHA and then are returned to us…so we are trying to ensure that we have trained people and all the necessary requirements to decrease that delay,” said Minister Cummings.
The expectation is that the Lab will have all of the necessary measures in place shortly to test for viruses including Chikungunya and Zika. According to reports out of the Ministry, at least two persons have been trained to conduct tests for Zika.
But even with the addition of trained personnel recently, it was revealed that there was need for the equipment within the lab to be recalibrated.
According to Minister Cummings, the laboratory has been working closely with CARPHA to ensure that the lab is of international standard.
“It is a work in progress. The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) is our technical adviser and has been helping us too. They have been working with us in terms of capacity building…they are helping us ensure that we have the training to ensure that the work is done in the right way, and to ensure that we have people who can maintain the equipment that we have,” said Dr. Cummings.
The Minister said that, already, the support that the Public Health Ministry has been gaining, has allowed it to start operating with some level of independence from CARPHA.
“We are being empowered now to do things that we couldn’t do in the past,” said the Public Health Minister.
Using the lab to test for the Zika Virus is currently a major priority for the Ministry. The Zika Virus became a major public health threat during the course of last year.
For the past year, Guyana recorded a total of 35 laboratory confirmed cases of the Zika Virus.
The Zika virus is spread by infected Aedes mosquitoes that bite throughout the day into the evening and at nights. They are able to breed around homes especially in collections of fresh water such as open black tanks, tyres, roof guttering, plant containers and other vessels.
The Aedes mosquito is also capable of transmitting other viruses including Chikungunya and dengue too. A total of 842 cases of dengue fever were confirmed during the past year and there were 135 cases of the Chikungunya virus recorded. The Ministry was faced with an outbreak of Chikungunya in 2015 and is continually faced with sporadic cases as well as that of dengue fever.
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