DEPLOYMENT OF FIELD LABORATORY TO WEST AFRICA
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases, a Division in the NHLS deployed a specialist team in response to the ongoing Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak to Sierra Leone on 16th August 2014. The deployment is in response to an extended call from the World Health Organization, Global Outbreak Alert Response Network (WHO/GOARN) in aid of the unprecedented outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. The team will be setup close to Freetown, Sierra Leone and will serve to provide specialist diagnostic support in the efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak.
The team consists of four staff members of the Centre for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases (CEZD) and includes a biosafety specialist and three laboratory staff. The team is deployed under the leadership of Professor Janusz Paweska, Head of CEZD and accompanied by Dr Petrus Jansen van Vuren, Ms Chantel le Roux and Mr Günther Meier. The team is set to return in one month’s time after which further deployment of CEZD staff members to the field laboratory is planned, if required.
For up-to-date situation reports and alerts on developments regarding the Ebola outbreak please visit nicd.ac.za
Our thoughts and prayers are with the CEZD field laboratory team!
