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Resource Centre
ASLM’s Resource Center is designed to help you keep up with the latest tool kits, regulations, guides and other information published by ASLM, partners, and global health regulatory bodies. Use the filters above to locate the information you need based on the ASLM project, resource type, or topic of interest. To find a specific resource, enter the resource name in the search bar. You may also use the search bar to enter key words related to the resources of your interest.
In April 2023, ASLM’s Laboratory Directors Forum convened a high-level meeting on diagnostic integration and laboratory systems strengthening in Nairobi, Kenya. The meeting brought together 97 attendees, including 53 in-person and 44 virtual participants, consisting of laboratory directors, HIV and tuberculosis (TB) programme managers from 15 countries, global health experts, funders, and collaborating partners. This… Read More
Description: On 12 October 2023, ASLM’s LabCoP convened an Extended ECHO session focusing on the World Health Organization’s recently released guidance on the role of HIV viral suppression, and the Lancet systematic review that credits undetectable levels of the virus for both improving individual health and halting onward HIV transmission. The session presentation was made… Read More
The August LabCoP ECHO session, was jointly organized by ASLM and Global Laboratory Initiative (GLI), one of the 7 working groups of the Stop TB Partnership. This session was convened to review the World Health Organization’s Standard on Universal Access to Rapid Tuberculosis Diagnostics. The WHO End TB Strategy calls for all notified TB cases… Read More
On Thursday, 8 June 2023, African Society for Laboratory Medicine convened a session to walk through the historic WHA resolution on Strengthening diagnostics capacity. This resolution, the first of its kind, that addresses diagnostics was initiated by the Kingdom of Eswatini, and co-sponsored by all WHO AFRO region member states, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Germany, France and… Read More
Through its Africa Task Force for Novel Coronavirus (AFTCOR) Laboratory Technical Working Group, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has developed guidance on ‘Building Testing Capacity for Epidemic-Prone Diseases’. The aim of this guidance is to enhance the surveillance and diagnostic capacity of African Union (AU) member states. The guidance provides… Read More
A second February 2023 LabCoP Monthly ECHO session is one of a two-part series dedicated to the new WHO recommended HIV test algorithm. In this first session, we focus on transitioning to a three-assay HIV testing strategy that requires three consecutive reactive tests to provide an HIV positive diagnosis and limit the risk of misdiagnosis… Read More
The February 2023 LabCoP ECHO session is part 2 of The Revised ISO15189:2022 Standard series. It takes a deep dive into changes needed at country and facilities levels to align to and meet the requirements of the revised standard. The focus is on how to systematically handle the transition for both accredited and non-accredited laboratories…. Read More
In this Antimicrobial (AMR) Community of Practice (CoP) webinar, we learn about how Tanzania has managed to implement an AMR surveillance system based on the WHONET software and implementing the WHO Point Prevalence Survey on Antibiotic Use in Hospitals, as part of their National Action Plan on AMR implementation. We also discuss how this surveillance… Read More
This Guidance for Establishing a National Laboratory Quality Framework (NLQF), developed by Africa CDC and ASLM, has been prepared to guide and facilitate country-level efforts of strengthening national laboratory systems and networks. This document serves as a practical guide for countries during the development or updating of their national laboratory quality policies and strategic plans… Read More
Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT), or ‘vertical transmission’ is a significant contributor to the acquisition of HIV with an estimated 150 000 new HIV infections among children reported in 2020, and other infectious diseases including syphilis and hepatitis B (HBV). The 2021 World Health Organization global guidance on criteria and processes for validation: elimination of mother-to-child transmission… Read More
On 8 December 2021 this special ECHO session was held to focus on the role of the Diagnostic Evidence Hub in accelerating uptake of diagnostic innovations. The Diagnostic Evidence Hub, launched in 2020 by the FASTER Project and hosted on the ASLM website, provides easy access to consolidated regulatory and performance data for test methods… Read More
These guidelines, published by the World Health Organization, provide new and updated recommendations and good practice statements in the following areas: starting antiretroviral therapy (ART), including initiating treatment outside the clinic and support for same-day ART start; frequency of clinical visits and ART refills; measuring adherence; tracing and re-engagement in care for all populations; psychosocial… Read More
In November 2020 the LabCoP stakeholders met online to convene the 2020 Face-to-Face virtual meeting. LabCoP’s 4th Annual Meeting aimed to assess the progress of LabCoP countries’ action plans and the outcome of ongoing interventions; discuss laboratory system strengthening across diseases through reviewing challenges and best practices in maintaining routine viral load (VL), early infant… Read More
ASLM and Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) have produced a guide on how to develop and validate in-house RT-PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2. This guidance is essential, particularly in settings with limited diagnostics, including low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) where diagnostics are not immediately available during a pandemic. During the current COVID-19 pandemic the much… Read More
ASLM in collaboration with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and in partnership with the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Amref and Last Mile Health present the Quality Assurance Framework for SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Testing for Diagnosis of COVID-19. This framework aims to provide general technical guidance to African Union Members States on the… Read More
On 9 October 2020, this COVID-19 ECHO session and expert panel was convened to discuss what, why, and how the COVID-19 antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag RDTs) can be rolled out for optimal clinical and public health outcomes in Africa. Ag RDTs are fast and easy-to-deploy diagnostic methods that take 10 – 15 minutes to… Read More
As part of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, laboratory diagnosis has remained as the cornerstone to this intervention. Molecular assays performed on nasopharyngeal swabs or other upper respiratory tract specimens are the most commonly used and reliable tests for the diagnosis of COVID-19. A variety of RNA gene targets are used by different… Read More
Decentralising laboratory testing for COVID-19 to on a national scale will be effective if COVID-19 nucleic acid testing is extended to subnational levels. However, this expansion process from national to sub-national levels has to be balanced carefully so as to meet the increasing demanding for the COVID-19 testing service while maintaining a high quality of… Read More
On 18 September 2020, this COVID-19 ECHO session was convened to discuss antigen testing’s role in helping control the COVID-19 pandemic. Real time Polymerized Chain Reaction (rt-PCR) testing to detect SARS-CoV-2 has been the WHO recommended method to diagnose COVID-19. However, this method has not always been available at every tier of the laboratory network… Read More
In this paper, Kenneth Kintu, et al, investigated the virological suppression (achieving viral loads < 50 copies per mL) before giving birth with dolutegravir compared to efavirenz, when initiated during the third trimester. They found that dolutegravir was associated with higher rates of viral load reduction in pregnant women compared with efavirenz. Although both regimens… Read More
The World Health Organization has published interim guidance on the use of masks in the context of COVID-19 for health settings and home care. This interim guidance provides detailed pragmatic advice to decision makers on the use of masks for healthy people in community settings based on risk, vulnerability, settings and feasibility.
LabCoP’s April ECHO session featured presentations about maintaining HIV and TB testing in the context of COVID-19 from Dr George Alemnji, Senior Technical Advisor for Laboratory Services at the State Department Office of Global AIDS Coordinator (SGAC) and Health Diplomacy, US CDC; Dr Lara Vojnov, Diagnostics Advisor, WHO; and Dr Dennis Falzon, Medical Officer, World… Read More
This modelling study by Marius Gilbert, et al, published in the Lancet, 2020, evaluates preparedness and vulnerability of African countries against importations of COVID-19. Their evaluation was based on WHO International Health Regulations (IHR) Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework, and on an indicator of vulnerability to emerging epidemics.
This is an exhaustive PowerPoint presentation by Paolo Surico and Andrea Galeotti about the economics of a pandemic, using COVID-19 as a case study. The presentation sheds light on the science, health policies, economics and macroeconomic policies.
WHO has published these recommendations for health workers and global health professionals who travel, to help them stay safe and minimise their chances of contracting the 2019-nCoV in the course of their work. Please download these documents below.
In October 2019 the LabCoP stakeholders met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to convene the 2019 Face-to-Face meeting. It was co-convened by ASLM and the World Health Organization to enable countries to objectively assess their progress towards the improvement of the viral load testing (VLT) cascade, consolidate the implementation of interventions, enhance collaboration with civil society… Read More
Increased access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and treatment monitoring for pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV is a priority for promoting health during the pregnancy and post-partum periods, and to minimize the risk of vertical transmission of HIV to infants. Point-of-care viral load (POC VL), which allows testing to be conducted at or near… Read More
In this session we focused on the issues of policy, legal and regulatory frameworks for waste management, using an example from South Africa. This session underscored the fact one of the common noted challenges in many settings was that there were and still are limited or no existing national policies or guidelines on dealing with… Read More
This Waste Management session covered updates to the checklist for assessments of viral load (VL) and early infant diagnosis (EID) testing laboratories and associated healthcare facilities. David Bressler, MS, CBSP (SM) NRM of the International Laboratory Branch, CDC, Division of Global HIV and TB presented to the audience about the checklist/tool and its ability to… Read More
In collaboration with ASLM and the LabCoP community, the CDC International Laboratory Branch (ILB) presented an overview of the World Health Organization (WHO) Publication: ‘Safe Management of Wastes from Health-Care Activities’ during the second ECHO session dedicated to waste management. This document, developed by WHO in 2017, highlights the key aspects of safe healthcare waste… Read More