One of the areas that needs to catch up in the fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is laboratory services.  A lack of investment, insufficient technical assistance and a shortage of diagnostic tools pose a challenge to the scale-up of interventions, particularly in WHO’s African Region.

To be able to bridge this gap, WHO and the  Public Health Laboratory – Ivo de Carneri (PHL-IdC) recently organized a workshop – considered the first of its kind - to provide training to laboratory personnel on the execution of diagnostic testing and good laboratory practices for NTDs.  

The course involved lectures and hands-on-experiences in laboratory practices, majoring the necessary skills required by professionals to diagnose NTDs in both resource-constrained and better resource settings.

Experts facilitators were from WHO and academic and research institutions from all over the world. The courses covered involved the diagnosis of schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, dengue fever, leprosy and rabies.  Other topics were good laboratory practices, molecular techniques and preparation of feasible and practicable standard operating procedures for effective operations at the field level. Sessions also covered the diagnosis of diarrheal diseases as one of the major plights facing developing countries as of now.

Twenty–nine participants who attended were able to network and share lessons across the twelve countries and four WHO regions present in the training (AFR, EMR, EUR and SEAR). The meeting also reinforced the network of laboratories and research centres working on NTDs.

As part of hands-on training, a visit was organized to a leprosy centre in Pemba where slit-skin smears were taken from recent leprosy diagnosed patients to demonstrate the real practice in field-settings. At the end of the course, all participants acknowledged having gained vast knowledge from the taught subjects, and the exercises.  

In his opening remarks, the Minister for Health Zanzibar, Honourable Hamad Rashid Mohamed, praised on the excellent collaboration between Zanzibar and WHO and congratulated the organisation and partners for putting in place such an important course to strengthen capacity on the diagnosis of NTDs.

Hon. Rashid Mohamed said laboratory services are an essential component in the fight against communicable diseases and reiterated on the need to continuously aim to provide better treatment to the sick, especially through the provision of expertise and reliable laboratory results.

The Minister noted the growing emergence of antimicrobial resistance among others, stating that the course was crucial and pertinent at this time. He also acknowledged the robust experience PHL has accumulated since becoming a WHO Collaborating centre in 2005, and that it was well-placed to become a reference centre in terms of laboratory training. He took the opportunity to also comment on the great cooperation the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar has with the People’s Republic of China and WHO in the fight against Schistosomiasis in Pemba Island.

Remarks by Dr Ghirmay Andemichael, the WHO Liaison Officer in Zanzibar who represented Dr Tigest Ketsela Mengestu, the WHO Representative to the United Republic of Tanzania, shared progress made in the fight against NTDs in Zanzibar. He acknowledged the good collaboration Ministry of Health and the entire Government of Zanzibar has with WHO and partners. He said WHO has donated 3,014,680 tablets of Albendazole and Praziquantel (worth USD 2,786,860) in the last five years, 2013-2018, to prevent and treat NTDs in Zanzibar.

The Public Health Laboratory Ivo de Carneri (PHL-IdC), in Pemba, Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania, has been a WHO Collaborating Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) since 2005. It operates under the Ministry of Health, Zanzibar. WHO is considering continuing holding similar workshops in this laboratory, and further replicating it in other locations including the WHO/AFRO/ESPEN laboratory in Ouagadougou for French-speaking countries. ESPEN, the Expended Special Project for the Elimination of NTDs was resourceful in supporting the participation of laboratory professionals from ESPEN supported Member States.