BOTSWANA – African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM), a Pan-African organisation strengthening medical laboratory networks and systems, has announced support to Botswana’s Ministry of Health through Project STELLAR.
In order to support countries and help them to achieve WHO and Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) targets for COVID-19 diagnostics, the Global Fund has introduced Project STELLAR – Scaling-up Testing and Strengthening Lab Systems.
Through this initiative, the Ministry has advanced its laboratory systems, built capacity for over 40 laboratories, and developed guidelines for influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance.
Recent milestones include acquiring an Illumina sequencer and enhancing data management systems for real-time reporting.
According to The Global Fund, as one of the centrally managed limited investment (CMLI) projects under the COVID-19 Response Mechanism (C19RM), Project STELLAR has been created to support a group of African countries in maximizing the impact of C19RM resources.
This will enable selected countries to rapidly scale up COVID-19 testing and galvanize longer term strengthening of laboratory systems.
With an initial investment of US$9.86 million, the project will cover the following interventions that should be implemented by December 2023 to improve national diagnostic governance; scale up and increase coverage for COVID-19 testing and surveillance; and strengthen data management.
In September ASLM highlighted crucial role in combating Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in the African region during the high-level discussions at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
ASLM indicated that Antimicrobial Resistance is a significant public health challenge in Africa, where the misuse and overuse of antibiotics have accelerated the emergence and spread of resistant infections.
Without immediate and coordinated action, AMR is projected to cause approximately 4.5 million deaths in Africa by 2050.
ASLM and its consortium partners have worked to provide a baseline quantification of antimicrobial resistance and consumption in 14 priority countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Mapping Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Consumption (MAAP) project has reviewed a total of 50,000 medical laboratories, selected over 200 sites, and digitized nearly one million retrospective AMR data.
Additionally, MAAP has collected and analyzed antimicrobial consumption (AMC) data from pharmacies and central procurement units, revealing critical insights.
In the insight, only 1.3% of laboratories selected could conduct basic bacteriology testing, lack of access to recommended essential antibiotic combined with the circulation of unregulated antimicrobials, and AMR surveillance data indicated high levels of AMR.
