NATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH LABORATORY

ISO 15189:2012 ACCREDITED

EMERGING & RE-EMERGING

The National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) has divided in various section including the emerging and re – emerging diseases which is based under the department of molecular biology. This subsection deals with detection of emerging and re-merging infectious diseases for routine surveillance and/or outbreak confirmation situations

What is Emerging and Re-Emerging infectious diseases
The emerging infectious diseases are those disease newly –appearing infectious diseases or those spreading to new geographical area, new model of transmission and also those refers to those diseases which were previously easily controlled by antibiotic but now has developed resistance to these drugs such as tuberculosis, malaria, meningococcal and etc.

Which has become:

Difficult to treat (treatment not established)
Commonly, occurs in increased incidence (occurs in bursts)
With substantial epidemic potential
Easily spread widely, geographically or demographically
Severe and lethal
With new complication

Examples of diseases which have newly emerged in Tanzania are: Rift Valley fever (2007), Influenza A H1N1 (2009), Dengue Fever (2010), COVID19 (2020), leptospirosis (2022) etc.

While the re – emerging infectious diseases are human infectious disease, which was present previously, and now are re - appearing due to favorable conditions such as:

Reduction in heard immunity
Change of the characteristics of causative agent. example whooping cough in Tanzania we have a biosafety level two (BSL 2) laboratory and our staff have been trained to BSL 3 enhanced procedures and therefore we have been involved in detection of various disease outbreaks including SARS-COV2, Middle East corona viruses, yellow fever, RVF, Dengue Fever, Ebola, Chikungunya, HBV, HCV, HEV, Zika, West Nile Fever, Measles and Rubella. We perform Real-Time PCR for specific viruses, cell culture for Influenza virus isolation and Genotyping and sequencing tests for detection and preliminary screening. We send samples for confirmation to laboratories of nearby countries by while abiding to IATA regulations.
Responding to the outbreak diseases confirmation

Our customers aiming to use Emerging and remerging disease section for outbreak confirmation and research purposes, that will be required to come at NPHL management for discussion on protocols to handle research samples and entering into Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).