Document 0979
 DOCN  M94A0979
 TI    The impact of HIV infection on clinical laboratory services and patients
       care in sub Saharan Africa.
 DT    9412
 AU    Musonda RM; Tropical Diseases Research Centre, Ndola.
 SO    Int Conf AIDS. 1994 Aug 7-12;10(2):236 (abstract no. PB0959). Unique
       Identifier : AIDSLINE ICA10/94371596
 AB    OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the capability of government and mission hospital
       laboratories in the Northern region of Zambia. METHODS: A survey of 31
       HIV screening hospital laboratories (labs) was undertaken in 4 provinces
       in Northern region of Zambia including the Copperbelt. Physical
       inspection, personal interview were carried out and questionnaire was
       administered to assess their capabilities which included, personnel,
       diagnostic methods, basic equipment, supplies and HIV test kits.
       FINDINGS: All the 31 hospitals visited carry HIV antibody screening of
       blood donors and have at least one trained lab personnel. However, the
       overall standards of labs were found to be poor except in some mission
       hospitals. Most of the labs are dilapidated while others have no proper
       infrastructure to handle infectious specimens or blood banks. None of
       the labs had a safety biological cabinet. In addition, the equipment is
       obsolete, with poor performance, compounded by lack of standard testing
       procedures, basic reagents for routine diagnostics and quality control.
       The majority of hospital labs uses manual and crude diagnostic methods
       for blood grouping, clinical chemistry, haematology with no facilities
       for diagnosis of microorganisms. Quality assurance procedures are none
       existence. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The laboratory services for
       patients care has always been given very little attention by health
       ministries of most countries in Africa and Zambia in particular. This
       has been partly due to economic problems and lack of expertise in the
       area of laboratory science. The increase in demand for diagnoses of
       Mycobacteria tuberculosis, Sexually transmitted diseases and other
       opportunistic infections in patients with AIDS/ARC has made it a matter
       of high priority for the hospital labs to establish proper facilities
       for diagnostic including drug sensitivity studies for improvement of
       patient care and control of the spread of infectious diseases in the
       community. There is a need for Biotechnology companies to invest in
       development of cheaper, simple and reliable, basic clinical laboratory
       techniques for countries in Africa.
 DE    Africa South of the Sahara  *AIDS Serodiagnosis  AIDS-Related
       Opportunistic Infections/*DIAGNOSIS  Human  Laboratories,
       Hospital/*STANDARDS  MEETING ABSTRACT

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