ZAMBOANGA CITY – A government laboratory in
Zamboanga City used for avian influenza diagnosis in 2008 has been converted to
test the novel coronavirus, or Covid-19, after it passed a strict compliance
set by the World Health Organization, or WHO.
“We express our support in this endeavor
knowing that we have the facility and the equipment to possibly qualify to test
Covid-19. Utilizing it is in our utmost agenda right now apart from ensuring
the continuous food supply in the region to help in this Covid-19 crisis,” said
Agriculture regional director Rad Donn Cedeño.
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| Photo from the Department of Agriculture. |
Cedeño said aside from WHO, the laboratory is now officially accredited as a Covid-19 testing center by
the Department of Health, of DOH, and the Research Institute for Tropical
Medicine, or RITM.
It has
undergone five stages during which necessary assessments, validations,
trainings and tests upon its accreditation. And among the qualifications
considered by the certifying body were the proprietorship of a Biosafety Level
2 Molecular Laboratory and the vital Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
(RT-PCR), both of which are present in the laboratory.
The DOH through the Zamboanga City Medical Center will man the
laboratory from its clinical and engineering operations to the certification of
equipment to ensure that standard operating procedures and the External Quality
Assurance System set by RITM are strictly followed.
“The collaboration of DOH and DA in setting up this Covid-19 testing
laboratory is very timely and important not only in identifying positive cases,
but also in preventing even worse scenarios such as community transmissions
from happening in Region 9,” said Dr. Maryrose Rendon, head of the DOH Infectious
Disease Cluster.
On its initial operations, the laboratory will process samples on
weekdays with the results available in a minimum of 48 hours depending on the
number of specimen received per day. “We will also be accepting samples from
the region’s neighboring provinces such as Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi,” Rendon
said.
The operation of the Covid-19 testing center will only run for the
duration of the pandemic until such time the region is declared free from the
deadly virus or when interventions from DOH will require its inactivity.
The animal disease diagnostic laboratory was established
12 years ago - with the support of the Japan Special Trust Fund Program, and
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Bureau of
Animal Industry - for avian influenza diagnosis or disease caused by infection with bird flu Type A
viruses which occur naturally among wild aquatic birds worldwide and can infect
domestic poultry and other bird and animal
species, but do not normally infect humans.
Maria Melba Wee, the DA regional technical director, said the
laboratory is secured with limited access to unauthorized people because it is
a fenced and separate building within the complex. “It is modern and built to
purpose. It has a 3-suite configuration for PCR with proper workflow from clean
to dirty, and with certified Class II-A biosafety cabinet with calibrated
equipment,” she said, adding, the old RT-PCR machine has been replaced with the
latest machine in 2017.
Sulu,
Zamboanga appeal
Sulu Governor Sakur Tan and Zamboanga Mayor Beng Climaco have
earlier appealed separately for medical support and Covid-19 rapid test kits
following the mounting number of infections the past weeks. Sulu had reported 4 suspected Covid-19 deaths, while Zamboanga recorded 1 death.
Tan said the provincial and municipal hospitals still lack medical
equipment to support the campaign in combatting the spread of the deadly
respiratory disease, now a global pandemic. He said the provincial government
has been asking medical support from the regional government and national
agencies, but received nothing.
“Because of the absence of testing kits, the incapacity of our
hospitals, lack of ventilators and shortage of sufficient medical personnel to
attend to a sudden surge of Covid, our only viable course of action is
prevention through a province-wide general community quarantine. We cannot
afford to take any chances of putting at risk the lives of our people as a
consequence of relaxing our quarantine procedures,” he said.
“Prevention is the only available option at our disposal at the moment,
considering that we are not equipped medically and still denied of even the
most basic of testing kits and other related equipment, either from the
regional government or national agencies. For reasons aforementioned, it would
be grossly unfair if our local initiatives would be measured by the same
yardstick used in other better equipped provinces and regions in the country,”
he added.
Tan, who heads the local Task Force Covid-19, said while Sulu - one of 5
provinces under the Muslim autonomous region - being remotely located and
poorly equipped, “we took the cudgels of facing this plague on our own through
gutsy determination and optimizing our meager resources.”
“May we, as your fellow Filipinos, further entreat our regional and
national government to focus your attention and provide for our needs for
testing kits, ventilators and other essential resources as equally as you do
the other provinces. In spite of our sparse resources, we are one with our
country in helping and contributing in whatever way we can in fighting and
defeating Covid-19,” he said. “The public can understand the Provincial
Government's limited medical capabilities, but we can sense their restlessness
and queries are abound on why the delay of much needed equipment and kits.”
Last week, Climaco said the local government is willing to purchase
Covid-19 rapid test kits because it takes too long for RITM to release test results
of patients and many of them had died even before test results could come out. She
said Zamboanga City had 34 suspected Covid-19 deaths.
“What we are appealing from the local government unit of Zamboanga, on
behalf of Region 9 - Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi -
is that if we have this tests available in Zamboanga City that’s approved
by the so we will be able to easily test
our suspected patients at para ma-loan natin sa ating mga hospital facilities
sapagkat napakatagal tayong makakuha ng results and sometimes yun pasyente
natin paglabas na positive siya eh matagal na natin namo-monitor sa ospital,”
Climaco explained.
“Ano po ang maibibigay na solution (ng DOH) para sa amin because not
everyone that is swabbed is being tested (because) meron po silang very strict
criteria with the RESU (Regional Epidemiology
and Surveillance Unit) and that is where our backlog is kasi ang
sinasabi ng mga local government units kung mabigyan kami ng access ng DOH to
test as many possible suspects as we can, it will really ease the burden on our
hospitals, it will ease the burden on the local government units so we are
asking and appealing from DOH to help us rapidly, positively test these cases
if they are positive in a way we will be able to ensure that health services
will be provided at the earliest possible time,” Climaco said.
“Wala (hindi) po kami nabigyan ng test kits sa Zamboanga City and the
only process we are observing is the DOH swabbing so ang sinasabi namin ay may
kakayahan ang mga local government units to buy the test kits, but the question
is maa-aprubahan ba ito ng DOH although this is FDA-approved pero dadaan at
dadaan pa rin ito sa RITM and that is why in order to help fight Covid-19
outside of Metro Manila kami po dito sa Mindanao ay wala pong natatanggap na
rapid test kits, but we do not want to burden the national government because
we have over 5,000 cases and we have the finances to purchase these test kits,”
she added.
Climaco has welcomed the accreditation of the DA’s laboratory as a
Covid-19 testing facility in Zamboanga. (Zamboanga Post)
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