December ASLM e-News    

This month sees ASLM's first appearance at ICASA. We invite you to join us at the booth or during the symposium.    

We recently held two important meetings here in Addis, the Consultative Meeting on Research and the ASLM SLIPTA Independent Advisory Committee meeting.

Participants at the November 21-22 Consultative Meeting on Research included ASLM Senior Leadership and representatives from Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal and the USA.  

It was decided that ASLM's role in supporting public health laboratory research will be to:

1) build research capacity in countries,   

2) take a more proactive role in enhancing synergies between Ministries of Health, Science and Technology, academia, and between clinicians and laboratory professionals,

3) act as a conduit or umbrella organization to facilitate multi-country research projects, and  

4) support the value chain for local manufacturing through the Ministries of Health and Science and Technology. 

November 24-25, we hosted the ASLM SLIPTA Independent Advisory Committee meeting attended by representatives from WHO AFRO, WHO Geneva, CLSI USA, CRESAC Côte d'Ivoire, CDC USA, SCMS Rwanda, NICD South Africa, MUHAS Tanzania and WAQP Burkina Faso.   

The committee formulated its approach to strengthening laboratory quality management systems and will release meeting report soon.

During the month of November, ASLM was represented by Dr. Roscigno at a World Bank meeting on TB Diagnostics in Nairobi, Kenya. Drs. Roscigno and Messele also spoke at the EDCTP meeting at United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa.

We look forward to meeting you at ICASA or at one of our events in the New Year.