Key NHLS lab staff to work through Christmas

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues its surge in SA, for key staff at the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) there will be no time to enjoy the festive season with family and friends.

According to NHLS spokesperson Mzi Ngcukumana, facilities at the state-owned health body will remain open and operational during December – a month that has been marked by several superspreader events in contravention of Covid-19 regulations.

With a staff complement of about 7 000 employees, the NHLS has laboratories in the country’s nine provinces – the largest diagnostic pathology service in South Africa country, covering 80% of the population.

Supporting national and provincial health departments in healthcare, the NHLS offers diagnostic laboratory services, research, teaching and training.

The NHLS plays a major role in:

• Public health, through epidemiology, surveillance and outbreak response activities.
• The national antiretroviral rollout programme, through CD4+ viral load studies and HIV treatment monitoring.
• Tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment monitoring.
• Screening for cervical cancer and rendering support to occupational health services.

Responding to unconfirmed reports that the state-owned health body would – during the festive season until 7 January – only focus on Covid-19 clinical trials, leading to a three-week delay in the validation of Covid-19 tests, Ngcukumana said: “The National Health Laboratory Service continues to do validations and is completing the work it currently has. The NHLS has received a number of kits for validation – about 100. It is currently ongoing.

“Sahpra (SA Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority) has already registered a large number of tests on its database.

“This does not constitute authorisation but merely allows to test the accuracy of the test.

“These validation reports then go to Sahpra to allow for full authorisation, if the performance of the test warrants it.”

Asked about the reliability of tests, Ngcukumana said: “The NHLS is responsible for ensuring that tests, which are authorised for use, continue to perform well – through the surveillance and lot-to-lot verification.

“As an indication, the NHLS has been at the forefront of all the validation of products registered for use so far.”

– brians@citizen.co.za

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