SOURCE: Association of Public Health Laboratories
SILVER SPRING, MD–(Marketwire – July 20, 2010) – A critically needed modular laboratory facility is en route to Port-au-Prince thanks to a collaboration between the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and International Relief Solutions, LLC (IRS). The APHL Haiti Field Laboratory Support Team provided technical assistance to International Relief Solutions, LLC (IRS) in planning and design of the new laboratory, which will replace the temporary tent facility that has served the nation’s largest hospital since the January earthquake.
The 24′ by 36′ modular laboratory will be erected at L’Hôpital de l’Université d’État d’Haïti (HUEH). Since the earthquake, the number of patients being treated at HUEH has tripled from 14,000 per month to almost 42,000 thus increasing demands for laboratory testing. Due to extremely high temperatures and no air conditioning in the tent, automated testing requiring cooler temperatures, such as hematology and blood chemistry, are being run manually. The result is that the current testing capacity is only 25% of the daily demand. The modular lab facility is designed with infrastructure for work benches, heating, ventilation, plumbing and electrical services. With direct hookup to electrical and water supplies, the laboratory building will have the air conditioning necessary to meet the requirements of the many intricate and delicate tests that the laboratory technicians on scene perform routinely. The lab will arrive with the electrical system and plumbing pre-installed allowing for a quick start-to-finish set up of approximately four days.
APHL Senior Technical Consultant and Team Leader for the APHL Haiti Field Laboratory Support Team, Dave Doherty, coordinated this effort from start to finish. Following the earthquake, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requested and authorized Doherty and his team to assist all of the public health network laboratories in Haiti in getting testing services back up and running to support the enormous demands for medical care and treatment.
Better lab facilities will improve testing services and also enable laboratory technologists to get back to work. According to Doherty, “Many well-trained technologists in Haiti are unable to work and provide testing services because of the loss of laboratory facilities to earthquake damage.”
It could be years before the permanent structures are rebuilt; the new modular lab serves as a long term solution. This initiative was a success due to the collaboration of willing and committed partners, each of whom brought essential resources and expertise to assure an effective solution for meeting a critical need in Haiti. Lives will be saved and illnesses treated effectively because of the efforts of APHL, IRS and CDC. Doherty modestly explains, “We were able to come through. APHL has always come through in Haiti.”
The Association of Public Health Laboratories is a national non-profit located in Silver Spring, MD, that is dedicated to working with members to strengthen governmental laboratories with a public health mandate. By promoting effective programs and public policy, APHL strives to provide public health laboratories with the resources and infrastructure needed to protect the health of US residents and to prevent and control disease globally.
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Michelle M. Forman
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