Investigating epidemics: K-P to create network of diagnostic labs

A reference laboratory will be created which will serve as the central node of the network

PESHAWAR: To investigate the incidence of different diseases which can pose a threat to lives, the provincial government has planned to set up a Public Health Laboratory Network which would connect all public and private diagnostic laboratories.

The central node of this network would be Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) first-ever Reference Laboratory.

In recent years, a number of different diseases have claimed several lives including dengue, Congo and bird flu. They were, however, investigated by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad.

Now, the provincial health department has decided to improve its own capacity to investigate different diseases and plan to upgrade diagnostic laboratories for this purpose.

Officials with knowledge of the project stated that initially, the government will identify all public and private diagnostic labs operating at the district levels and see where do they lack and move to upgrade them as and where necessary.

A set of standard operation procedures (SOP) will be drafted on upgrading these diagnostic laboratories and district hospitals.

“This is very premature but we have to identify all such laboratories. Initially, we will be upgrading them,” a health official said.

The official, who refused to share his identity since he was not entitled to speak to media, stated that currently the move was in the planning phase and would take time to materialise.

However, the official said that the project is expected to move into the second phase probably by next year when different technicians will be identified (selected on the basis of performance or capability of the laboratory) for training as Multi-Purpose Technicians and to become master trainers.

“Once we have a group of master trainers, we will be able to train technicians at other laboratories,” the official said, adding, “Once we have the trained staff, we will connect all the laboratories with the provincial laboratory, the Reference Lab.”

The official added that initially, a few selected laboratories will be connected to the central laboratory through a network. These laboratories will then send details of their investigations to the central reference laboratory — most likely to be set up in Peshawar.

Later, with the passage of time, all laboratories in the province will be linked to the Reference Lab.

“This is a huge task and for this purpose, we will conduct a mapping exercise and then we will launch a Laboratory Management Information System connecting all the laboratories with the central lab,” he stated.

With the department having already expressed its willingness to seek technical assistance from different donor agencies for the purpose, the official expects that the first phase will begin soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2018.