Gabriela Torrea

Gabriela Torrea started a discussion "External Quality Assessment of Tuberculosis Laboratories - Discussion moved to the Drug Resistant TB Community" in the TB Infection Control community.

Has anybody experience and/or knowledge about External Quality Control system implemented in TB laboratories, particularly for egg-based solid media culture (SMC) and broth-based culture(BBC)? ** Moderators' note: This discussion has been moved to the Drug Resistant TB Community. Please follow this link if you wish to contribute to this discussion: http://www.ghdonline.org/drtb/discussion/external-quality-assessment-of-tuberculosis-labo-2/. Thank you.**

Gabriela Torrea replied to "External Quality Assessment of Tuberculosis Laboratories" in the MDR-TB Treatment & Prevention community.

Dear Rebecca Weintraub, Thank you for your valuable reply. I know very well these documents that are relevant for this topic. Actually, I meant the EQA for culture as a process by which we can compare results and performance of several labs during the same period of time. I agree with you that quality assurance remain a challenge for TB laboratories and a previous step for lab accreditations. Best regards Gabriela Torrea

Gabriela Torrea replied to "External Quality Assessment of Tuberculosis Laboratories" in the MDR-TB Treatment & Prevention community.

Dear Tom Nicholson, Thank you very much for your response, I greatly appreciate your kindness as I am keen on developing this topic as soon as possible.

Gabriela Torrea replied to "Lab Proficiency Standards" in the MDR-TB Treatment & Prevention community.

Dear Mark, In the "Red Book" published by IUATLD entitled: "Priorities for Tuberculosis Bacteriology Services in low income countries" Second edition 2007, it is stated that proficiency can still be maintained even if only one or two positive smears are identified per working week. However, there is no defined critical cut off for a minimum of smear examinations for maintaining proficiency. For culture and DST thare are no international recommendations published in my knowledge. Nevertheless ...

Gabriela Torrea replied to "Lab Proficiency Standards" in the MDR-TB Treatment & Prevention community.

Dear Mark, Sorry for not answering earlier, I have been travelling. My colleagues don't have more information than those have already been given by other members of the community. No international policies already published concerning the number of specimens to be processed to keep skills are known. The best is conducting refreshing courses and retraining whenever it is financially feasible and as Marina said it is usually recommended to send a panel of smears (stained ...