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Volunteer pathologists from the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) are traveling to Africa as part of a US government-funded effort to train African lab professionals on how to better screen, diagnose and monitor HIV/AIDS patients.
Along with ASCP, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tapped the Association of Public Health Laboratories to develop laboratory training and education programs to assist in combating the AIDS epidemic. These periodic training missions are funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), President Bush's five-year, $15 billion initiative to stop the spread of AIDS and treat those infected or orphaned by it.
A Helping Hand in the Lab
On one teaching mission to Zambia, where 16.5 percent of the adult population is infected with HIV, ASCP members Terry Somrak, JD, a board-certified cytotechnologist coordinator, and Candace Golightly, a board-certified medical laboratory technician, taught laboratory professionals how to better screen and diagnose HIV/AIDS patients and monitor infected patients' therapies.
"We are helping to build an infrastructure for their laboratories," says Somrak, who coordinates the ASCP's PEPFAR volunteer initiatives. "They'll be getting new instrumentation to monitor individuals with HIV/AIDS who are going to be prescribed antiretroviral therapies."
The African lab workers' jobs are complicated by the condition of their labs, which lack dependable electricity and clean water. "It's a big shock to see how different the labs are in Third World countries," Golightly says. Even simple supplies like latex gloves are rare.
Somrak says the greatest need is to provide effective training programs for chemistry, hematology and CD4 testing, which measures the strength of an HIV patient's immune system. The ASCP volunteers are implementing comprehensive laboratory quality-assurance programs to ensure quality samples.
Eager to Learn
Golightly, who teaches CD4 testing as a clinical assistant professor at State University of New York -- Stony Brook, was honored to share her knowledge with the African lab workers during her two-week trip in April 2005. The African pathologists are eager to learn, she says, and appreciate the reading materials, textbooks and supplies the ASCP provides.
"These people want to provide good, accurate testing and improve their condition," she says. "It's interesting to see different populations with different problems."
Since January 2005, Marianne Cabanero, a board-certified medical laboratory technician and hematology specialist, has gone on two PEPFAR missions to Africa, where she trained Zambian and Ethiopian lab workers on documenting HIV cases.
"You could hear a pin drop when we were lecturing," says Cabanero, director of lab services at Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines, Florida. "One of the participants told me that their dreams have been fulfilled by this training. You can't do anything but cry in response to that."
More Work to Do
ASCP members who have served in the volunteer program agree that the experience has changed their perspective on pathology -- and on life.
"You're not just coming and giving them a lecture," Cabanero says. "You're helping them to handle a huge problem. You get involved in their culture. You eat with them and dance with them and connect with them. It's a partnership."
PEPFAR is targeting 15 nations in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean for future training sessions. These countries, along with Zambia, are home to nearly half the world's HIV cases.
PEPFAR is off to a good start in Africa, Somrak says, but calls the recent initiatives "the tip of the iceberg." In sub-Saharan Africa alone, the world's hardest-hit region, 2.4 million people died of AIDS in 2005, and 25.8 million people -- 60 percent of all cases worldwide -- are currently living with HIV, according to a UNAIDS report.
"There are many factors that we are not even aware of at this point," she says. "We are in phase one. There is a great need for follow-up to make sure that what is being taught is truly being implemented in these labs."
Get Involved
The ASCP-PEPFAR program is seeking ASCP members to serve as volunteer consultants. Volunteers may develop training materials; evaluate situations in African nations; and train lab workers in hematology, chemistry or CD4 testing. More information about volunteering is available here.