The Public Health Laboratory (PHL) is a division in the Public Health Institute of Malawi (PHIM).. PHL is a specialized laboratory system that offers advanced essential public health laboratory leadership through science and services. To achieve the goals the PHL requires strong leadership, professional staff, strong collaboration with partners and stakeholders and advanced technology. Partners like the World Bank, Africa Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (AfCDC) and, African Society of Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) have come in to assist in PHL services by adding human resources and equipment.
On 1st June 2024 the African Society of Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) donated 3 high-speed desktop computers, 2 high-speed laptops and a server to be used in the data processing, especially in genome sequencing and bioinformatics that generate a huge amount of data.The ceremony was presided over by the Deputy Director responsible for the PHL assisted by Dr Mirriam Nyenje the head of NGSRL.
Among the items donated by ASLM was a high-performance SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile RV Satellite Internet Kit. In his appreciation speech, Mr Joseph Bitilinyu Bangoh thanked ASLM for this timely donation which will improve the network required for the sequencing and bioinformatics Illumina machines for sequencing and bioinformatics. Starlink has high-speed internet for Basespase, a software that analyses sequencing data on the Illumina machines. This means that Malawi will have enhanced genomic surveillance for various pathogens and the turnaround time for the results will be improved.
Immediately after the reception of the items the Stalink internet kits were installed by the local engineer paid for by ASLM. Smilingly Dr Mirriam Nyenje the head of NGSRL in Malawi thanked ASLM for the work and the support of the items to the installation stage. She happily said that Malawi will benefit a lot and that science will be at work.
The Starlink internet could reach the downloading speed of 89.25 Megabytes per second. After installation and activation, the internet started working at a very high speed and Illumina NeqSeq 1000 responded well to Dragen Software promising a good future sequencing and bioinformatics.
