Abra Medical Lab

I am beginning my service in a medical lab this week. I arrived at 10am and was there until 3pm for my first day. The lab is subdivided into the reception room, the sample collection station, the biochemistry area, the hematology area, the microbiology room, the scanning room and xray. The building is large and the lab is able to test for almost any of the common diseases within Ghana. There are 11 full time staff members, 5 women and 6 men.

I opted to follow Mr. Daniels around yesterday. He ran the biochemistry section and was doing testing for Cholesterol, Triglycerides, Protein, Glucose, Uric Acid, and Urea as well as Bilirubin for some. All the tests are kits from Accucare making the procedures strait forward.

He was really nice in explaining each one and how to adjust the spectrophotometer to the proper wavelength and how samples need blanks and controls. At this point i managed to thank him and explain that I do some lab work at my home university and understand all this... :)

We also did some microbiology, which I again got a full explanation of pouring plates and antibiotics and autoclaving, at which point i informed them i have just completed a microbiology course. I was then quizzed as to what goes on a gram stain: crystal violet and iodine. This apparently proved that I knew something at least...

I also was able to watch a typhoid test, which is rather simple. You add 2 drops of serum to a tile, add a basic and acidic solution and then rock for 2 minutes. If there is agglutination then you have typhoid.

The Hep B test is also very straight forward. Bilirubin levels are initially examined and if these are off then a test strip is used. You dip the strip into the urine and wait for the liquid to cross the line. A control line appears and then if another line is shown, you have Hep B.

The lab seems to determine their results with accuracy, which i cannot believe due to the techniques used. Professors you may want to read this sitting down...

1. The plastic disposable pipet tips are reused and rinsed with diH2o in between as a means of cleaning them. They are reused for both reagents and samples with the same pipet tips going into every bottle and sample...

2. Gloves are entirely optional, including when drawing, handling, and processing the blood of patients who are here because they have a disease.

3. The standards for each test on the spec are calibrated once in the morning and that is it. We redid the urea one and received a different reading but that did not seem to concern anyone...

4. There is no EtOH anywhere. I keep waiting for someone to clean the bench, but it does not happen. We were plating in the micro lab on a dirty counter top and i want to know how they could possibly trust those results.

5. The things they are missing are interesting as well. There are no eye showers or goggles, no hoods, water baths, or bio-hazardous waste containers or reagent waste containers. All the reagents and blood go down the sink or thrown in the trash...

However, even with the flaws, the lab clearly gets the results that are needed by the patients. Hospitals, clinics, and private individuals all use to lab for diagnostic testing. All of the members are well trained and competent in what they do. There are no protocols anywhere or MSDS sheets for that mater, but everyone knows what they are doing in the end and get the results. It will be interesting to continue working there and see how things progress...

Me and the Ladies! (Missing Maggie, the receptionist)

Me and Lidia and Daniels (My favorites)