US Government Supports HIV/AIDS Testing at the National Reference Laboratory in Lakka Sierra Leone

Freetown
June 23, 2007
Contact: Public Affairs Officer, US Embassy
Tel: 515 000

The United States Government has provided $250,000 (approx Le 747 million) to the National HIV/AIDS Reference Laboratory in Lakka, outside of Freetown, to implement an HIV/AIDS support project. The project was launched on Saturday, June 23.
 
The project focuses on ensuring that appropriate laboratory infrastructure and programs are available to support HIV/AIDS surveillance, training activities and quality assurance nationally. The US Government grant was used to purchase equipment to upgrade HIV/AIDS research and testing at the National HIV/AIDS Reference Laboratory in Lakka.
The project was developed by a team of experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  in Atlanta, which visited Sierra Leone in 2003. They conducted a comprehensive situation analysis of the current activities and future plans to address HIV/AIDS in Sierra Leone.  Special emphasis was placed on the health sector response and several recommendations were made on significant programmatic areas.  Upgrading the laboratory’s equipment was key to its fulfilling its role.

Present at the launch were the Director-General of the Ministry of Health, the Director of the National AIDS Secretariat (NAS), officials from the U.S. mission, and Dr. Issata Wurie, the consultant to the CDC project at Lakka.