Government says plans to set up an immunology specialized medical laboratory is underway with the help of financing from the European and Developing countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP).
Minister of Chiefs and Traditional Affairs, Nkandu Luo says she will engage Minister of Health Dr. Joseph Kasonde so that an existing laboratory could be identified in the country and refurbished into an Immunology laboratory for developing cell cultures to be used in the treatment of patients.
Professor Luo was speaking after attending the launch of EDCTP II in Cape Town in South Africa.
This was contained in statement made available to ZANIS by the Press Secretary at the Zambian High Commission to South African Nicky Shabolyo.
Prof. Luo sits on the Developing Countries Coordinating Council (DCCC) which is the advisory body of the EDCTP.
The EDCTP is a project initiated 11 years ago by some European and Africa countries to promote research by African countries to end the continent’s dependence on data obtained through trials done
by other regions.
And Prof. Luo says that African countries have been unable to initiate their own research because of the huge costs associated with such projects.
“European countries decided to come together and put money in a pot to create this EDCTP as a way of supporting clinical research in Africa.
“ This has been in existence as EDCTP I for 10 years and it is on the backdrop that it worked well that we were launching EDCTP II,” Professor Luo said in the same statement.
The launch in Cape Town that EDCTP II was coming with a bigger budget which will also be supported by the Melinda Gates Foundation apart from the European countries, she said.
Prof. Luo added that countries have accessed as much as two million Euros for use in carrying out studies, infrastructure development, delivery framework development and for actual research
requirements.
“It is with this in mind that we plan to access this facility to help us develop an Immunology laboratory from which we can develop cell cultures for use in treating some of these complicated conditions we
have in Zambia,” she said.
Professor Luo said Zambia has previously benefited from EDCTP I through the University Teaching Hospital and the Tropical Disease Research Centre in areas to do with HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria.
Countries represented at the launch include Netherlands, Sweden, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Switzerland.
The African continent was represented by Congo Brazzaville, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Mali, Gambia,
Senegal, Cameroon, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Kenya Mozambique and South Africa while institutional representation was from the Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Health, World Health Organisation and NEPAD.
Have Zambians started smoking ARV’s yet?
Why do you want to refurbish just build a new one.
I don’t think they have the money to spend on the project for it to be viable, they would rather print t shirts for campaigning, as in foreal, we need a clean sweep, this has become ridiculous now.
Has Lungu compromised our justice system????
At UTH, there is a virology lab which I visited quite a while ago. And Dr. Luo should be know too well the link of microbial organisms and immune response, and for that reason, expansion and support of the already present lab would go a long way. Many of the countries in Africa including Botswana, Kenya, SA and other have benefited from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the line of laboratory diagnostic of infectious diseases. My hope would be support what’s on the ground to bring it world level microbiology and immunology laboratory. I am available to provide training pro bono (at least pay back to my country) to trainees using instruments common in a diagnostic laboratory.