Co-developed with the lab strengthening arm of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local on-the-ground partners, BD associate volunteers have conducted lab strengthening activities in sub-Saharan Africa since 2008.

With our in-country partners, so far, we co-facilitated planning meetings, mentored in Quality Management and Project Management,and conducted baseline laboratory assessments. BD and PEPFAR co-sponsored a training-of-trainers course for Strengthening Laboratory Management Towards Accreditation (SLMTA) and developed and taught IT solutions to support the TB Specimen Referral Program in Uganda. Encouraged by the progress in the development of a Specimen Referral Linkage System with EHNRI in Ethiopia, we will be co-training at a new course at African Centre for Integrated Laboratory Training (ACILT) on TB Drug Susceptibility Testing. We also increased the rate of new curricula developed by adding Curriculum Development as a volunteer assignment.

BD collaborates on numerous projects with the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to combat life-threatening infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. Because this collaboration has demonstrated strong results, BD has strengthened and expanded its involvement. The partnership now has four components:

›› Safer blood collection
›› Lab strengthening
›› Wellness centers
›› Combating sexual violence against women and girls

All of our activities are designed to improve the quality of laboratories, create efficiencies and ensure that the proper support is in place so that patients receive timely and effective treatment. So far, BD associates have put in 8025 hours through eight volunteer trips and we look forward to continuing our efforts, which have proven to benefit laboratory workers and managers.