Strengthening public health laboratory capacity in Thailand for International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005)
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Abstract
Introduction: Thailand conducted a national laboratory assessment of corecapacities related to the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005), andthereby established a baseline to measure future progress. The assessment waslimited to public laboratories found within the Thai Bureau of Quality and Safety ofFood, National Institute of Health and regional medical science centres.Methods: The World Health Organization (WHO) laboratory assessment toolwas adapted to Thailand through a participatory approach. This adapted versionemployed a specific scoring matrix and comprised 16 modules with a quantitativeoutput. Two teams jointly performed the on-site assessments in December2010 over a two-week period, in 17 public health laboratories in Thailand. Theassessment focused on the capacity to identify and accurately detect pathogensmentioned in Annex 2 of the IHR (2005) in a timely manner, as well as other publichealth priority pathogens for Thailand.Results: Performance of quality management, budget and finance, datamanagement and communications was considered strong (>90%); premisesquality, specimen collection, biosafety, public health functions, suppliesmanagement and equipment availability were judged as very good (>70% but≤90%); while microbiological capacity, staffing, training and supervision, andinformation technology needed improvement (>60% but ≤70%).Conclusions: This assessment is a major step in Thailand towards developmentof an optimized and standardized national laboratory network for the detectionand reporting of infectious disease that would be compliant with IHR (2005). Theparticipatory strategy employed to adapt an international tool to the Thai contextcan also serve as a model for use by other countries in the Region. The participatoryapproach probably ensured better quality and ownership of the results, whileproviding critical information to help decision-makers determine where best toinvest finite resourcesCitation
Anne Harwood Peruski, Maureen Birmingham, Chawalit Tantinimitkul, Ladawan Chungsamanukool, Preecha Chungsamanukool. et al. (2014). Strengthening public health laboratory capacity in Thailand for International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005). WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health, 3 (3-4), 266 - 272. World Health Organization. Regional Office for South-East Asia. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/329758
Journal
WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health, 3 (3-4): 266 - 272ISSN
2224-3151 (Print)2304-5272 (Electronic)