by Shamiah Grant

The Ministry of Health is advancing specialised healthcare through a series of initiatives, which include the establishment of a Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Lab.

An HLA lab tests donor tissues before human transplant and are critical in the process of organ donation.

Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony recently noted that to support the rollout of this lab, for which equipment has already been procured, new recruits are being trained.

“This lab is absolutely essential, if we are going to expand our transplant program. Right now when we have to do the test to match recipients and donors, we have to send those tests to other countries for them to run the test. We have already bought the equipment and we are in the process of training so we can do HLA testing,” the minister said.

Plans also include the rolling out of a new laboratory management system to better coordinate activities among the various laboratories nationwide.

Another plan is for the establishment of a new biosafety lab at the National Public health reference laboratory.