Prioritising the “Silent Killer”: Africa Must Leverage HIV/AIDS Response Lessons to Confront Cancer

Prioritising the “Silent Killer”: Africa Must Leverage HIV/AIDS Response Lessons to Confront Cancer The world has changed significantly in the time since the emergence of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. The international HIV/AIDS response has prevented 8 million deaths and 30 million new infections since 2000, and many of the worst-affected countries have managed to cease—and… Read More

Fostering Quality Laboratory Networks through Accreditation in Togo

Fostering Quality Laboratory Networks through Accreditation in Togo The Role of Public Health Institutes in Achieving Public Health Goals ASLM recently sat down with Dr. Abiba Kere Banla, Director of the Togo National Institute of Hygiene (Institut Nationale d’Hygiène – INH) in Lomé, to discuss the Institute’s push to assure quality and achieve accreditation. The… Read More

Revitalised Laboratory Declaration to Forge a Path for Action

A Revitalised Laboratory Declaration to Forge a Path for Action The Ebola epidemic brings to the forefront the imperative to reinforce healthcare and laboratory systems, which has resulted in national governments taking critical steps to close the vulnerabilities in these systems. In light of the challenges uncovered in the outbreak response, how can governments effectively… Read More

Combatting Drug Resistance in Africa

Combatting Drug Resistance in Africa New stepwise framework aims to provide guidance for establishing sustainable surveillance programmes Once an ignored threat, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – commonly known as drug resistance – has become an international priority (see ASLM’s previous article). Drug resistance impacts public health in a profound manner, leading to negative outcomes for patients… Read More

Keeping on Point: Ensuring High Quality Point-of-Care Testing in Africa

Keeping on Point: Ensuring High Quality Point-of-Care Testing East African Leaders Join Together to Develop Country-Specific Plans Point-of-care-testing (POCT), which includes diagnostic testing performed at or near the point of patient care, serves as a powerful but underused tool in resource-limited settings. When performed correctly and in a timely fashion, POCT improves patient retention and… Read More

Once an Ignored Threat, Antimicrobial Resistance Becomes an International Priority

Once an Ignored Threat, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Becomes an International Priority Antimicrobial resistance, a phenomenon in which microorganisms are able to survive antimicrobial treatment such that drugs become ineffective, is an ever-growing problem of international public health importance. [1] Present everywhere in the world, drug-resistant parasites, bacteria, viruses, and fungi jeopardise the effective prevention and… Read More

Improving Disease Surveillance Through A Community-Tailored Framework

Improving Disease Surveillance Through A Community-Tailored Framework The recent Ebola outbreak exacerbated weak points in disease surveillance, highlighting the need for renewed attention upon disease surveillance systems. These weak points, which may have gone unnoticed had they not been exposed to the unprecedented scale and severity of the Ebola outbreak, meant that many cases were… Read More

Guidance on the Regulation of New Diagnostics in Time of Outbreak

Guidance on the Regulation of New Diagnostics in Time of Outbreak At the beginning of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, no regulatory-approved, mass-produced Ebola in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) existed, yet specifics of the disease required timely diagnostic testing. Urgent demand for Ebola IVDs revealed inadequacy of internationally accepted conventional regulatory mechanisms and the need… Read More