PESHAWAR: The first-ever public health reference laboratory will start functioning at Khyber Medical University within two months, according to officials.

The facility, to be established by provincial health department with the technical assistance of World Health Organisation and National Institute of Health Islamabad, would act as reference laboratory to receive sample from suspected patients of dengue haemorrhagic fever, measles and Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) etc to diagnose outbreaks of epidemic and take timely steps for its control.

The health department had pledged Rs150 million for refurbishment of the buildings where the country`s second laboratory after NIH would start operations. The laboratory would process cases from the province, Fataand Afghanistan.

Dr Ziaul Haq, focal person for the public health reference laboratory at KMU, told Dawn that they were working on the project to ensure that epidemics were diagnosed and followed by quick response.

`NIH would provide us equipment and reagents while the government will release annual grants for it. KMU will deploy its staf f to run the first-ever facility of international standard,` he said.

He said that representatives of WHO and NIH visited KMU and would continue to support the laboratory for the sake of quick response to epidemics.

`Response to any epidemic is possible when we have scientific evidence of any disease or specific types for which work on the laboratory has been agreed at the Memorandum of Understanding among KMU, WHO, NIH and health department, said Dr Zia.

He said that once the laboratory was completed, the provincial health department would be approached to declare it reference laboratory for diseases.

He said that the laboratory would continue to work in collaboration with NIH and WHO and facilities would be upgraded with thepassing of time.

Dr Zia said that establishment of reference laboratory would enable health department to declare outbreak of any disease after testing of samples, which would make possible prompt response to the problem.

Senior physicians at the medical teaching institutions have been demanding establishment of the reference laboratory to be able to timely investigate cases and start action accordingly.

`NIH, which has been receiving samples fromthewholecountryaswellasAfghanistan, is extremely overburdened due to which the results of samples are not issued in time, they said.

They said that during the recent outbreak of dengue fever, which killed two persons, the hospitals performed rapid tests of suspected people that were not recognised by WHO.

They said that the province required a reference laboratory to put brakes on epidemics through timely diagnosis and action.

`Government would swing into action at the initial stage of any epidemic after testing of sample. Currently, some of the diseases assume the shape of epidemics because they are not investigated and treated quickly, said the physicians.