BACKGROUND The detection of epidemic-prone pathogens is important in strengthening global health security. Effective public health laboratories are critical for reliable, accurate, and timely testing results in outbreak situations. Ghana received funding as one of the high-risk non-Ebola affected countries to build and strengthen public health infrastructure to meet International Health Regulation core capacities. A key objective was to build laboratory capacities to detect epidemic-prone diseases. Read more.
Proper detection of disease-causing organisms is very critical in controlling the course of outbreaks and avoiding large scale epidemics. Nonetheless, availability of resources to address these gaps have been difficult due to limited funding. This report sought to highlight the importance of in-country partners and nongovernmental organizations in improving detection of microbiological organisms in Ghanaian Public Health Laboratories (PHLs). Read more
COVID-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented threat to both public health and the global economy. In an effort to manage and contain this pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has prioritised laboratory testing (https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media briefing-on-covid-19—16-march-2020). We examine the testing capacity of the laboratory system in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to WHO, gold standard for COVID-19 diagnosis is real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Read more
