Sierra Leone News: The Need for a Medical Laboratory Board

By Dr.W.B.O Roberts, Clinical Pathologist

In recent times, there has been mushrooming of health laboratories in Sierra Leone and more so in Freetown. Some of these laboratories are manned by untrained laboratory technicians

Most doctors when confronted by never ending barrage of pathological (laboratory) test results and scores find it difficult to interpret because the technicians are not well trained to give more accurate results.

A typical example when requested for malaria parasites, the result may come back as malaria positive. The resultdo not indicate the type of malaria nor does it give the parasitic load; blood sugar may come back as positive, not quantifying in million or grams.

There was a case in point when a urine was positive for glucose; and they assumed that the patient was diabetic which can be fatal if treated. The technician when asked for advice thought it was diabetic, because he was not au fait with what he was doing and not well trained. The result may be due to low renal threshold which you can get in some pathological disorders in some families. Widal test for typhoid is worse. The titres are not indicated to tell you the gravity of the disease. Blood culture is the most accurate but is seldom done because they do not have the knowhow.

More problems in bacteria sector; results are usually vague. The hematology area (blood) are most inaccurate, the normal ranges may vary considerably from laboratory to laboratory

There is need to present a representative mean. The Laboratories have to be standardized and supervised. The need to check reagents which may have expired but continue to be used, and the methodology may be obsolete.

Please let us have a Medical Laboratory Board to supervise and maintain standards so that all laboratories are registered.