The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

MINISTRY OF Health (MOH) Lab Strengthening Manager Dr Indira Martin calls the recent Reference Laboratory Accreditation obtained by the MOH a great accomplishment that will allow the Bahamas an international voice in medical research.

“It gives us a standing to publish our research. The international publishers, they won’t question our research because we now have the seal from the College of American Pathologists (CAP) saying that we are accredited and our quality of work is at a level that is acceptable on an international stage,” said Dr Martin.

Dr Martin, along with the likes of Minister of Health Perry Gomez, and many others, last Tuesday attended an unveiling ceremony at the newly accredited Ministry of Health Reference Laboratory at Royal Victoria Gardens.

This accreditation means that the laboratory is now officially recognised as having a gold standard of quality on par with over 7000 other CAP-accredited labs globally. It is the first public health laboratory in The Bahamas (and the second in the region) to achieve international accreditation status.

“What we are really focusing on after accreditation is just strengthening our service to the public at large. As far as what it means for the lab, this is an interesting opportunity to provide services at reduced cost to the region as well as building capacity in the region. That is really what it is about because the more you externalise these things and keep sending it away, you are giving jobs to say someone in America or building their labs,” said Dr Martin.

At the end of the day, Dr Martin said, when something hits in the region, the reference lab would need to have the capacity to rapidly respond to issues such as a dengue outbreak.

The Reference Laboratory houses state-of-the-art technology that is used in the diagnosis and treatment of thousands of HIV positive persons throughout the Bahamas. It is the only laboratory in the country and one of only a few in the region that conducts the various tests required for clinical management of HIV.

“In order to do these tests, we have a molecular platform, which is basically DNA based, so we are looking at very small things. We have been using that for HIV so far and we are now thinking of applying that to other diseases,” said Dr Martin.

With her dual role within the MOH, Dr Martin said apart from her reference lab management position, she also heads a laboratory technical working group.

“The whole goal of that body is to actually strengthen the lab system across the whole country. This is not only for clinical labs, but also other public heath labs such as environmental, food and water labs. This accreditation is just kind of the beginning of what we are mandated to do in terms of accrediting the whole system,” said Dr Martin.

For the past two and a half years, Dr Martin said she has worked with the reference lab team.

“We have presented a few papers at various conferences. Our research has been on a phenomenon known as HIV Resistance, and basically it speaks to those that don’t take their medications; these people can end up resistant. In terms of research done in the past with this lab, some work was done back in the 90s looking at the link between crack cocaine use and HIV. No one in the world had shown this link between the two, so that was something that was important really early on,” said Dr Martin.

Going forward, Dr Martin said she would really like to bring on board for the first quarter of 2014 the HIV Resistance testing.

“It is understood to be a really important test throughout the world now because of this rising phenomenon of HIV Resistance which can be a life or death issue,” she said.

Following that, Dr Martin said she would also like to get funding to move into other diseases, for example, breast cancer.

“We are partnered with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), as well as the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in America and then there has also been a partnership with the Clinton Foundation over the years. Working with them has been excellent, in fact the CDC partnership really helped us to get to our accreditation through the technical assistance and training programs that they offered. So they have been really useful partners,” said Dr Martin.