Manama, Apr. 1 (BNA): Minister of Health, Dr. Jalila bint Al-Sayed Jawad Hassan, stressed the importance of developing national capabilities to achieve the reference vision for public health laboratories, increasing their capacity and benefiting from them. technologies at all levels.
She also urged that more efforts be made to continue the success in contributing to the global efforts to combat influenza viruses.
This came during the minister’s meeting during his meeting with the National Influenza Center in Bahrain, led by the head of the Public Health Laboratory, Amjad Ghanem Zayed, following the center’s success in winning the World Health Organization award for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, in recognition of its continuous participation. In supporting surveillance activities and exchange of influenza viruses with the collaborating centers during the past two years (2021-2022).
The Minister expressed his thanks and appreciation to the team of the National Influenza Center in Bahrain for the tremendous efforts they have made over the past years in the areas of virus surveillance and response.
The WHO award was announced at the conclusion of the third scientific conference and the sixth meeting of the Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance Network in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, which was held in the Sultanate of Oman.
The WHO award also recognized the center’s active role and contributions, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, in supporting surveillance activities and sharing influenza viruses with the Geneva-based organization’s collaborating centers.
The goal was to intensify surveillance of influenza and other emerging respiratory diseases and to improve the use of data for setting up control programs and conducting research on influenza and other respiratory viruses.
Established in 2011 at Public Health Laboratories, the National Influenza Center was accredited as a National Influenza Center and a member of the Global Influenza Surveillance and Export Network (GISRS) by the World Health Organization in 2012.
The center, which is a branch of the Ministry of Health, was approved after it passed all the quality requirements specified in international standards, and participated in the External Quality Assessment Programs (EQAP) offered by the World Health Organization through the GISRS network,
The accreditation was renewed in 2018, after a delegation of WHO experts visited the center to verify the continuity of implementing the requirements and passing all local and international quality requirements.
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