– DirectorBy Sharmain CornetteSeveral millions were expended by Government to procure needful Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing equipment for the National Public Health Reference Laboratory in order to boost local capacity to test for public health threats, the likes of the H1N1 virus.However, there has been a halt to the utilisation of the equipment as it relates to the testing of the virus, according to Director of the Reference Laboratory,Cheap Authentic Jerseys, Dr Colin Roach. Though a few tests were completed following a training programme in January for staffers of the Laboratory there have been no new requests for tests, Dr Roach revealed.Dr Colin RoachAnd this has not been a cause for concern as according to him it simply means that Guyana is no longer under the H1N1 threat. “It is like the virus has totally disappeared…Since that training programme we had here the frequency for sampling has dropped. We just don’t get any requests now.”However, this development has resulted in the inability of the laboratory to fully roll out its testing capabilities since, according to Dr Roach, at least 20 samples must be tested to validate the process. As part of the validation process, it is also required that samples be tested in correlation with other labs such as the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is necessary to determine if the local lab’s testing capability is on par with those overseas.However, the tests carried out at that lab are nowhere close to the recommended figure, thus its operation as it relates to this nature of PCR testing has effectively ceased, Dr Roach disclosed. “At the moment we are not using our equipment but we are on the verge of introducing new testing techniques.”And since the equipment at the Reference Lab is opened to conduct other tests, the Director revealed that discussions are ongoing as to determine what other tests can be done. Currently tests in the areas of malaria, tuberculosis, dengue and leptospirosis are being considered. However, once such tests are engaged they will not be done on a routine basis but rather on a specialised basis, Dr Roach asserted.It was just last December he revealed that reagents had begun coming into the country thus measures were being streamlined for staffers to be trained to conduct HINI tests. He had explained too that training for staffers is essential as testing for the HINI virus is a semi-automated process. This he said simply means that the first part of the process is done manually and the second part is automated.At the completion of the training course, Dr Roach said, the laboratory’s capacity would have been completely boosted, a development which has occurred but is yet to be completed with the validation process.Since the invasion of the virus which is commonly referred to as the Swine Flu, last year, the local Ministry of Health has been reliant on the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre based in Trinidad. However, with hands on training that was undertaken last year, the laboratory is in fact poised to become the single local facility with the necessary equipment and personnel to test for the swine flu virus and other exotic virus strains with the aid of Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RRT- PCR).
