Status Report of National Reference Laboratories for Epidemiological Surveillance of Communicable Diseases and Diseases with Epidemic Potential in Côte d'Ivoire after More Than a Decade of Existence

Introduction: Many hospital, public health and university medical laboratories, whether public or private, contribute through their diagnostic activities to health care and the improvement of public health Objective: To evaluate the state of knowledge of the National Reference Centres (NRC) in order to identify measures for their improvement after more than a decade of practice. Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out with managers of national reference laboratories. Result: The NRCs are active in the surveillance of priority communicable diseases. Their activities are national and international in scope. The NRCs are headed by medical doctors or scientific biologists, all of whom are researchers with an experience of 18.4±9.2 years, with 8 (72.7%) men and 3 (27.3%) women. These managers were appointed by a decision of the management. The NRCs estimated the funds allocated to their activities to be (91.7%) insufficient. The NRCs did not have a laboratory information management system (66.7%). Concerning the problem of infrastructure and operational equipment, the result shows that the NRCs are confronted with an interruption of electricity in 16.6% of cases. Half of the NRCs (58.4%) do not have sufficient laboratory space to carry out their work without compromising the quality of work and the safety of staff. 9 (75%) of the NRCs have successfully participated in proficiency testing programmes and 4 (33.3%) have organised proficiency tests. Conclusion: No national reference laboratory is accredited ISO 15189. The results of the assessment can be used to develop a work plan to improve laboratory surveillance and detection of communicable and potentially epidemic diseases in Côte d'Ivoire.