CelebrateLAB® West Africa 2022 Conference takes place in Accra-Ghana April 20 – 21
Medical Laboratory and research scientists from across West Africa will this week converge in the Ghanaian capital Accra to deliberate on how West Africa can build needed local capacity for the manufacturing of vaccine and other medical products in the subregion. The 8th annual conference will bring together about 150 onsite delegates and several virtual participants from across the West Africa subregion, comprising of medical laboratory and research professionals, academia, regulators, policy makers, and medical product manufacturers and suppliers.
CelebrateLAB® West Africa 2022 Conference is on the theme: “Ensuring Diagnostic Capability and Vaccine Sufficiency as Panacea to Combating Infectious Diseases in West Africa.” It will take place at Alisa Hotel in Accra, Ghana, from 20 –21 April. This year’s theme will place special focus on building laboratory capacity in the area of human resources, clinical research and vaccine and other medical products manufacturing in West Africa.
Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia will deliver the keynote address, stressing the need to strengthen health systems across West Africa, by applying the lessons learnt from the current COVID-19 pandemic and previous disease outbreaks, to prepare the region’s health systems beyond the current pandemic. Ghana’s Minister of Health, Hon. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu is the special guest of honour.
CelebrateLAB® West Africa 2022 is being organised by Africabio Enterprises Inc., in collaboration with the Ghana Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists, and co-hosted by the Ghana Health Service under the distinguished leadership of its Director General, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, and the Akai House Clinic, with support from the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria.
Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease, West Africa, and indeed Africa as whole suffered inequity in access to masks, diagnostic devices, testing kits and other medical supplies as well as vaccines. While health inequity against the continent is not new, the COVID-19 Pandemic reopened the conversation on ensuring the continent’s self sufficiency in healthcare products and solutions through local manufacturing, in order to expand access to healthcare. This effort will require wider collaboration across the region to ensure that the needed expertise and resources are available to create the right environment for product manufacturing. Critical among these initiatives will be building professional expertise in clinical research and health diagnostics, to ensure that medical products manufactured in Africa are suitable for Africans.
About CelebrateLAB West Africa Conference
CelebrateLAB® West Africa is an annual meeting of Medical Laboratory and research professionals, regulators, policy makers, academia and medical product manufacturers and suppliers. The first CelebrateLAB® Conference took place in Liberia in 2014, following the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease in the subregion that claimed several lives and revealed major gaps in West Africa’s healthcare systems, especially in the area of disease surveillance and diagnostics. In its 8th year, CelebrateLAB® West Africa, convened by the Liberia-based life science company, Africabio Enterprises Inc., remains the only event of its kind in the subregion held during the internationally marked medical laboratory professionals’ week in April that celebrate the role of Medical Laboratory Scientists in healthcare outcomes.
Efam Dovi
PR & Outreach Lead, CelebrateLAB W. Africa Conference.
Source: africaneditors.com
