The WHO Identifies 15 Labs to Test For 2019-nCoV
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced it is working with partners to strengthen global diagnostic capacity for 2019-nCoV detection to improve surveillance and track the spread of disease.
On February 6, 2020, the WHO’s Situation Report #17 says, ‘Public health efforts to control the spread of disease in countries with imported cases depend critically on the ability to detect the pathogen quickly.’
‘The WHO and partners have activated a network of specialized referral laboratories with demonstrated expertise in the molecular detection of coronaviruses. These international labs can support national labs to confirm new cases and troubleshoot their molecular assays.’
Currently, there are 15 laboratories have been identified to provide reference testing support for 2019-nCoV.
These laboratories include:
- Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Thailand
- Erasmus Medical Center, The Netherlands
- Hong Kong University, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Japan
- Institute of Virology, Charité, Robert Koch Institute, Germany
- National Institute for Communicable Diseases, South Africa
- National Institute of Health, Thailand
- National Institute of Virology, India
- National Public Health Laboratory, Singapore
- Institut Pasteur Dakar, Senegal
- Institut Pasteur, Paris
- Public Health England, UK
- State Research Center for Virology and Biotechnology, Vector Institute, Russia
- United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention, USA
- Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Australia
The WHO is working to ensure 2019-nCoV test availability, including, but not limited to:
- screening of 2019-nCoV PCR protocols from academic laboratories for validation data
- evaluation of the potential to use existing commercial coronavirus assays (e.g. SARS-CoV) to detect 2019-nCoV with high sensitivity
- working with commercial and noncommercial agencies with the capacity to manufacture and distribute newly-developed 2019-nCoV PCR assays
To increase regional testing capacity, efforts to increase national capacity and provide regional reference laboratory support is ongoing.
The WHO has also made 250,000 tests available to 159 WHO Regional Offices and national laboratories across WHO regions.
The WHO said it will utilize the Shipping Fund Programme established by the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System as a mechanism to send clinical samples from patients meeting the case definition of suspected 2019-nCoV infection to international referral laboratories.
The national capacity for detection of 2019-nCoV must be strengthened so that diagnostic testing can be performed rapidly without the need for overseas shipping.
One way this will be achieved is by working with existing global networks for the detection of respiratory pathogens, such as National Influenza Centres.
Coronavirus outbreak news published by Coronavirus Today.