Pascale Ondoa: strengthening laboratory medicine in Africa

Abstract

“Our core aim is to build laboratory systems to address the health agenda as defined by Africa”, says Pascale Ondoa, who for the past 5 years has been Director of Science and New Initiatives at the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM). Part of this role is to direct technical advice and provide leadership to help shape health strategy and laboratory medicine improvement at the country level. “A lot of our work involves the coordination of partners and experts, so that investments from agencies like PEPFAR, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Fleming Fund, and others generate substantial and sustainable impact. Our overarching role is to ensure that funding in key laboratory programmatic areas can result in meaningful health improvements on the ground”, she says. This work inevitably means that Ondoa and colleagues have to navigate the complex space of global health politics and funding. “There are often preferred themes or trends that donors are aligned with which do not always fit country needs or are consistent with national health priorities”, she explains. “We sometimes have to take a more pragmatic approach, shaping country level strategic planning in line with areas in the funding pipeline. For example, a few years ago opportunities from donors were around HIV drug resistance, an important area for disease control, but not as crucial as investment in laboratory system infrastructure to build HIV viral load testing capacity for the effective monitoring of HIV treatment.” Transforming access to diagnostics: how to turn good intentions into action?The Lancet Commission on diagnostics1 highlights how 35–62% of the populations in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) do not have access to the diagnostic resources essential for six common medical conditions, with most unmet needs at community level. The Commission suggests that an evidence-based essential diagnostics list (EDL) and technological advances will help accelerate access to diagnostics in the context of the synergistic global health priorities of universal health coverage, COVID-19, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and global health security. Full-Text PDF