Abstract
The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) virus has infected many people across the globe. The health system particularly medical laboratory has been overwhelmed by the pandemic, and many health professionals including medical laboratory professionals have lost their lives during the fight against the virus. Medical laboratory science is the bedrock of medical practice and the role of medical laboratory science in containing the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be overemphasized as they are also behind the testing of clinical specimens from infected and any recovered patients. As disease detectives, Medical laboratory scientists and other medical laboratory professionals’ role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic include; diagnosis, monitoring, development of vaccines, testing protocols, testing kits, offering advice to the guide government policy on containment of the virus.: Various methods and techniques such as virological cell culture, genomic sequencing, amplification, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) /gene Xpert systems, immunological testing, biosensors and rapid diagnostic techniques (RDTs) have been employed towards discovery, testing and epidemiology since the onset of COVID-19. The medical laboratory workers and other health workers are so visible at the COVID-19 frontline and are being recognized and applauded for the role played in the recovery of patients affected with the virus. The medical laboratory component is very germane in the COVID-19 vaccine research and vaccination so as to provide pre- and post-vaccination laboratory data.
Highlights
Medical laboratory is a very important component in public health practice and operation especially in case of COVID-19
The medical laboratory methods and technologies applied in testing COVID-19 includes: neutralization/virological cell culture test, COVID-19 genomic sequencing, nucleic acid testing (NAT) /amplification testing, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), real time PCR (RT- PCR) and Gene Xpert systems, immunological testing, biosensors, rapid diagnostic techniques (RDTs) [15]
A collaborative committee of 17 medical organizations including American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS), Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) and American Society of Microbiology (ASM) in the year 2020 helped to coordinate the celebration of annual Biomedical science day in April, 2020 to increase public understanding of and appreciation for clinical laboratory personnel as COVID-19 rages worldwide [21]
Summary
Medical laboratory is a very important component in public health practice and operation especially in case of COVID-19. This chapter shall review the medical laboratory involvement and intervention during COVID-19 era and the ongoing efforts towards supporting laboratory surveillance and response to COVID 19. It will show the capacity of medical laboratory perspectives in COVID-19 and provide more information on the medical laboratory testing strategy, towards developing and managing sudden capacities for testing relevant specimens at all levels of health system. The approaches for ensuring laboratory testing sustainability in identifying new and suitable methods consistent with maximizing testing reagents, mobilizing human resources and guide towards implementation of public health measures towards COVID-19 containment, while exploring the recognition and protection policies for medical laboratory professionals during COVID-19 shall be presented
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