Practical manual on TB laboratory strengthening, 2022 update

Overview

The Practical manual on laboratory strengthening, 2022 update provides practical guidance on implementation of WHO recommendations and best practices for TB laboratory strengthening. It is an updated version of the GLI Practical Guide to Laboratory Strengthening published in 2017 and provides the latest practical guidance on use of newly recommended diagnostics as well as guidance in key technical areas, including quality assurance and quality management systems, specimen collection and registration, procurement and supply-chain management, diagnostic connectivity, biosafety, data management, human resources, strategic planning, and model algorithms. The key changes are:

• inclusion of recent or updated WHO recommendations for tests to diagnose TB and detect drug resistance;
• alignment with the latest WHO critical concentrations for phenotypic drug-susceptibility testing (DST) and the new definitions of pre-XDR-TB and XDR-TB;
• updated information on building quality-assured TB testing and management capacity using the Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards Accreditation (SLIPTA) approach (Score-TB package1);
• updated information on assessing, analysing and optimising TB diagnostic networks; and
• updated information on the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) to detect mutations associated with drug resistance for surveillance purposes.

The document also provides references to resources and tools relevant for work on laboratory strengthening.

Access the document here.

Source: World Health Organization