aslm

WHO HIV Viral Load EQA program in the African
region
Jean-Bosco Ndihokubwayo, MD
Gershy-Damet Guy-Michel
WHO-AFRO
ASLM-WHO meeting on HIV Viral Load network, Cape Town,
South Africa, 18-20 April 2013
Introduction
• Viral load testing is an essential parameter in guiding antiretroviral
therapy for individuals infected with HIV
• The primary objective of the Viral Load regional EQAP is to raise
awareness of the need for quality laboratory testing and to continually
improve and maintain the high standard of the participating laboratories.
•
The HIV Viral load EQA program is designed to assess the integrity
of a laboratory’s testing process by:
Allowing participants to monitor the performance of
tests and laboratory processes
 Comparing the performance of tests with others used
around the world;
Identifying and correcting sources of error
 Facilitating information exchange between participants.
Establishment of a WHO-Regional HIV
Viral load EQAP
•
In close collaboration with the NHLS
•
HIV serology Regional EQA program since
March 2013
•
Participating countries/labs: step by step with
extension of the program to the 46 countries by
2014
Plan of the program
The program consists of:

6 x HIV panel distributions/ year

Online reporting

Collect and manage HIV Viral load EQA data for
analysis: corrective actions for the lower performing
labs
Issues and challenges
 National reference labs operate in a context of
limited resources with lack of essential reagents
 How do we ensure meaningful quality intervention
in poor performing labs by using the scheme as a
training platform to help participants improve the
quality of the testing in their respective labs
 How to ensure proactive participation of the labs
Conclusion
 Importance of the HIV Viral load EQA program to improve
HIV lab quality testing (SLIPTA process) and to strengthen
the HIV Regional lab network
 To continually promote the concept of quality assurance, quality
control and quality assessment in the laboratory
 Identify problems and take appropriate interventions for
corrective actions
Need for collaboration with partners including CDC, NHLS
and ASLM
 Issues and challenges in the field that we (ASLM and
WHO) need to jointly overcome
Thank you
Merci