Aime Gapelba, Laboratory Technician, records his ASLM2018 selfie video
Since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a public health emergency of international concern, ASLM has relentlessly worked to train our medical laboratory community, provide them with resources, and connect them to laboratories across Africa to help prepare them to fight the disease that has infected over 1 000 000 people in Africa and complicated ongoing efforts to diagnose and treat other infectious diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and others. The response from Africa’s medical laboratory community has been impressive as these dedicated scientists work overtime to implement the lessons they have learned and global health guidelines that are saving lives across the continent.
ASLM is excited to announce our #WinTheFight social media campaign, designed to show how medical laboratories and researchers across Africa are joining in and helping their community #WinTheFight against COVID-19. ASLM encourages our members and followers to post a photo or a 30-second selfie-video of you testing or researching COVID-19. Ask a colleague to photograph or film you with your cell phone as you tell us what you’re doing to fight COVID-19. Then, upload your photo or video to Facebook and mention @ASLM.news and how your team is helping Africa #WinTheFight.
ASLM will compile these photos and videos into one that highlights the medical laboratory professionals across Africa who are helping the continent #WinTheFight against COVID-19. The video will be published on ASLM’s website, distributed via social media, and shown at ASLM’s next biennial conference to African ministries of health, global health leaders, and medical laboratory scientists from around the world. If you are on the front line of the COVID-19 fight, testing or researching, you are part of the story that we want to tell! Help us show the world what you are doing to #WinTheFight.
Author: David Lewin
Editor: Mrs Bethanie Rammer
About ASLM
Established in 2011, the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) is a pan-African professional body focused on improving healthcare by strengthening all aspects of laboratories including workforce strengthening, quality improvement and accreditation, harmonization of regulations, strengthening of networks, and strengthening advocacy and communications. Laboratory testing is pivotal for disease diagnosis, epidemiological surveillance, outbreak investigation, and initiation and monitoring of treatment, as well as research and development. ASLM addresses these challenges by working collaboratively with governments; national, regional and international organizations; implementing partners, the private sector and other agencies to achieve its Strategic Vision goals. ASLM is endorsed by the African Union with support from the World Health Organization, Africa CDC, the US CDC, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the World Bank, the Clinton Foundation, UNAIDS, and others.