Public health laboratory capacity to control infectious diseases threats

Abstract

Infectious diseases and resistance to antibiotics are global public health threats. Resilient health systems depend on the ability to detect emerging diseases accurately in time to stop outbreaks and avert major international crises such as the recent Ebola epidemic (Albiger, 2018). Public health preparedness requires adequate capacity of microbiology laboratories to: 1) ensure rapid infection diagnostics to guide treatment, detect and control epidemics; 2) characterise infectious agents for designing effective vaccines and control measures; and 3) monitor the impact of prevention of infections and containment of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).