‘Laboratory services not fully utilised in Zambia’

‘Laboratory services not fully utilised in Zambia’
Written by Masuzyo Chakwe
Monday, April 20, 2009 4:37:04 AM

LABORATORY services have not been fully utilised in Zambia, Biomed Society of Zambia national chairperson Hilary Lumano has said.

Commenting on the laboratory awareness week which began yesterday and ends on April 25, Lumano said laboratory services were not well funded and not a prioritised support service in many developing countries including Zambia.

He said an effective laboratory service was an essential part of a quality and effective health service and laboratories aided in providing confirmatory diagnosis, improved management of disease, offered essential public health information and participated in disease surveillance.

Lumano said the running of quality laboratory services needed highly skilled human resource, which unfortunately was hard to maintain in Zambia's setup.

He urged the government through the Ministry of Health to set up a national reference laboratory and also work out an external quality assessment programme that would monitor very closely the quality of testing in laboratory facilities across the country.

Lumano said the advent of HIV and AIDS and other public health challenges such as malaria, tuberculosis and even malnutrition had brought laboratories in the limelight especially that the practice of modern medicine required evidence.

He said it must be stressed that even though anti-retroviral (ARVs) were freely available, the administration of these life saving interventions was dependant on the laboratory tests to determine the suitability for the patient/client to start the treatment and to monitor the progress thereafter.

Lumano said administration of these interventions without appropriate base line tests was unethical and could be very dangerous and even fatal to the patient.

He said public resources were wasted in terms of expensive drug treatments due to non-specific diagnosis and the health of the general populace was also put at risk due to inaccurate information about public health.