The Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) successfully hosted its 2024 Research Dissemination Conference, featuring a keynote presentation by the esteemed Dr. Dzimbikani Kambalame. Dr. Kambalame delivered an insightful presentation on the “National Health Research Agenda: Progress, Gaps, and Opportunities.”
The conference brought together leading researchers, policymakers, and healthcare professionals to discuss the latest advancements and challenges in health research. Dr. Kambalame’s presentation highlighted the significant strides made in national health research, identified existing gaps, and explored potential opportunities for future development.
Reflecting on the event, Dr. Kambalame remarked, “This conference was a pivotal moment for us to reflect on our progress, address the gaps, and seize the opportunities that lie ahead in our national health research agenda”.
Attendees found the session as informative, gaining valuable insights into the current state of health research in Malawi and beyond. The event emphasized KUHeS’s commitment to fostering a collaborative environment for knowledge sharing and innovation in health sciences.
The 16th East, Central, and Southern Africa College of Nursing and Midwifery (ECSACONM) Biennial Scientific Conference themed ‘‘The Role of Evidence-Based Practice and Innovations in Nursing and Midwifery in Combating Emerging and Re-emerging Pandemics’’ held at the Avani Hotel in the Kingdom of Lesotho marked a significant milestone in advancing healthcare in the region.
The conference was attended by over 1000 delegates from sixteen countries namely; Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, South Africa, Rwanda, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Seychelles, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mauritius. Malawi was represented by sixteen delegates.
Dr. Chitsa Banda posing with Mrs. Chikondi Chimbatata on the event.
Dr. Evelyn Chitsa Banda- deputy director for research division and Mrs. Chikondi Chimbatata from PHIM were also in attendance. Mrs Chimbatata presented an abstract titled; Paediatric Sickle Cell Disease at a tertiary hospital in Malawi: a retrospective cross sectional study.
The conference offered a platform to reflect, share experience, and collaborate on strategies to strengthen our response to future pandemics and improve nursing and midwifery practice.
Clinical laboratories in Malawi form the foundation of evidence-based patient treatment and care. They are a fundamental component of disease surveillance, diagnosis and monitoring at every level of the healthcare system. Microbiology is one of the services offered by clinical laboratories to guide clinicians in antibiotic prescription and monitoring of antimicrobial resistance trends among pathogens of medical importance.
Laboratories require competent human resources, material support, continuous supervision and mentorships to carry out tests and produce good-quality and reliable results. In Malawi, the District Public Hospital and Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) laboratory services have suffered from inattention and chronic under-development with minimal resources for microbiology services.
Recently the Government of Malawi, Ministries of Health through the Public Health Institute of Malawi (PHIM) has increasingly prioritised the quality of microbiology testing services by incorporating the implementation of quality management systems improvement and capacity-building activities into laboratory service work plans.
Laboratory officer happily showing the intended result from culture.
One of the improvement strategy is to train more laboratory staff in basic microbiology and to scale up number of laboratories that could conduct microbiology testing.
Mr Yollam Chavula , Principle Laboratory Scientist responsible for technical microbiology work at NPHL and team.
Miss Khumbo Maseko a microbiologist at NPHL demonstrating culture and sensitivity tests at one of the laboratories in Malawi
Mr. Hurry Milala observing how a mentored laboratory staff performs drug sensitivity testing.
PHIM through National Microbiology Reference Laboratory (NMRL) holds a critical role in rapid response to infectious diseases. Among its mandates, the NMRL leads Malawi’s laboratory microbiology-based surveillance and disease control services through the detection of pathogens using microbiology techniques. It has a plan to have a network of district and Mission laboratories capable of conducting culture and sensitivity testing to confirm disease outbreaks.
It is for this reason that NMRL planned to conduct supportive supervision and mentorship for 9 laboratories including Machinga, Chiradzulu, Phalombe, Mulanje DHO, Mulanje Mission, Nsanje, Chikwawa, Malamulo mission and Nguludi (ST Joseph mission).
The activity involved the preparation of culture media, doing quality checks for the prepared culture media, and culturing patients’ samples. The activity also involved organism identification, drug sensitivity testing (AST) and how to report results.
Staff from NPHL attending morning handovers as a means of sensitisation to utilise microbiology results in the patients’ management.
The team also had an opportunity to attend daily district hospital morning reports as a means of sensitizing clinicians and nurses to use laboratory as evidence in the management of patients.
Commenting on the activity, the deputy director Mr Joseph Bitilinyu Bangoh who is also the head of the National Public Health Laboratory, highlighted that microbiology activities play a crucial role in patient management, outbreak investigations and disease surveillance. He again said that no surveillance is complete without a laboratory and that laboratory workers need to be vigilant when it comes to disease investigations. He sympathetically said that sometimes Public Health issues go without answers, citing a recent Neno outbreak and conjunctivitis that cost mortality and morbidity among children attending primary schools. He further said that emergency outbreaks like the Neno disease need to be responded to rapidly by the laboratory so that intervention are mitigated and implemented promptly. He encouraged those who went for mentorship and supervision to work hard and provide quality mentorship skills so that microbiology in Malawi gives proper answers to outbreaks and other health needs. He promised the team that he was in support of the activity and in his capacity as deputy director PHIM, he would make sure that NPHL is involved in all disease surveillance and outbreak investigations.
