BECAUSE DISEASE
KNOWS NO BORDERS
In Kenya, APHL helped to assure the accuracy of the nation’s laboratory testing by training biomedical engineers to maintain, calibrate and certify laboratory equipment.
BECAUSE DISEASE
Because Disease Knows
No Borders
In 2019, APHL partnered with the American International Health Alliance (AIHA) to provide specialized, multi-week training to six Kenyan biomedical engineers. These engineers—graduates of Kenya’s National Public Health Laboratories Centre of Excellence for Equipment Calibration, Certification and Training—are now qualified to maintain, calibrate and certify centrifuges, refrigerators, microscopes and other laboratory equipment in facilities across Kenya. That equipment, in turn, will enable accurate testing for HIV, TB, malaria and other important diseases in this rapidly developing East African nation of over 50 million people.
APHL was among the founders of the Centre and supports it by procuring calibration equipment for student use, funding annual calibration services for the master calibration equipment at the Kenya Bureau of Standards, helping to develop and deliver the training curriculum and funding an in-country equipment management specialist.
They have really improved the quality of testing.
Because Disease Knows No Borders
In 2019, APHL partnered with the American International Health Alliance (AIHA) to provide specialized, multi-week training to six Kenyan biomedical engineers. These engineers—graduates of Kenya’s National Public Health Laboratories Centre of Excellence for Equipment Calibration, Certification and Training—are now qualified to maintain, calibrate and certify centrifuges, refrigerators, microscopes and other laboratory equipment in facilities across Kenya. That equipment, in turn, will enable accurate testing for HIV, TB, malaria and other important diseases in this rapidly developing East African nation of over 50 million people.
APHL was among the founders of the Centre and supports it by procuring calibration equipment for student use, funding annual calibration services for the master calibration equipment at the Kenya Bureau of Standards, helping to develop and deliver the training curriculum and funding an in-country equipment management specialist.
It was not possible without APHL support.
Thomas Gachuki, the deputy head and quality assurance manager of Kenya’s Division of National Public Health Laboratories, said program graduates are collectively responsible for “thousands of pieces of equipment” in laboratories spread across the country’s 47 counties, covering over 200,000 square miles. They have, he said, “really improved the quality of testing.” And because there are over 100 Centre-trained engineers now living in Kenya, Gachuki said, “when equipment malfunctions, we do not have to send people from Nairobi out to rural areas; there are already people closer.”
The training program—begun in 2017 by APHL, AIHA and the Kenyan Ministry of Health—has been so successful that the Centre of Excellence has been recommended for ISO 17025 accreditation and the training curriculum has been adapted for use by engineers in Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi.
They have really improved the quality of testing.
Today, a handful of the Centre’s program graduates serve as mentors for other engineers. And 12 individuals from the first group of trainees, who have undergone additional technical and “train-the-trainer” instruction, are poised to take over the training from the APHL/AIHA subject matter experts.
“Before this program began, the equipment was in the lab for ten years without calibration,” said Gachuki. Now, instead of relying on distant contractors for equipment maintenance and calibration, “we can do this and sustain it within the government,” saving time and money and helping the country better achieve its public health goals. Said Gachuki, “It was not possible without APHL support.”
Banner: A staff member in the Machakos Lab prepares samples for testing. Photo: Kenya NPHL
Top left: A Centre staff member calibrates a balance. Photo: Kenya NPHL COE
Top right: An engineer calibrates pipetting tools for use. Photo: Kenya NPHL COE
It was not possible without APHL support.
Thomas Gachuki, the deputy head and quality assurance manager of Kenya’s Division of National Public Health Laboratories, said program graduates are collectively responsible for “thousands of pieces of equipment” in laboratories spread across the country’s 47 counties, covering over 200,000 square miles. They have, he said, “really improved the quality of testing.” And because there are over 100 Centre-trained engineers now living in Kenya, Gachuki said, “when equipment malfunctions, we do not have to send people from Nairobi out to rural areas; there are already people closer.”
The training program—begun in 2017 by APHL, AIHA and the Kenyan Ministry of Health—has been so successful that the Centre of Excellence has been recommended for ISO 17025 accreditation and the training curriculum has been adapted for use by engineers in Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi.
Today, a handful of the Centre’s program graduates serve as mentors for other engineers. And 12 individuals from the first group of trainees, who have undergone additional technical and “train-the-trainer” instruction, are poised to take over the training from the APHL/AIHA subject matter experts.
“Before this program began, the equipment was in the lab for ten years without calibration, (depending on the equipment, calibration should occur regularly every year).” said Gachuki. Now, instead of relying on distant contractors for equipment maintenance and calibration, “we can do this and sustain it within the government,” saving time and money and helping the country better achieve its public health goals. Said Gachuki, “It was not possible without APHL support.”
Banner: A staff member in the Machakos Lab prepares samples for testing. Photo: Kenya NPHL
Top left: A Centre staff member calibrates a balance. Photo: Kenya NPHL COE
Top right: An engineer calibrates pipetting tools for use. Photo: Kenya NPHL COE
