Expanding Diagnostic Capacity in Kenya

Ciheb’s work in Kenya continues to make progress in building health service capacity and in expanding prevention efforts for HIV and tuberculosis. The five-year Boresha Maabara project (Swahili for “improve laboratory services”) has been helping build diagnostic capacity at the national and local level. This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–funded project supports the Kenya Ministry of Health's National Public Health Laboratory and the Kenya National Blood Transfusion Services in strengthening laboratory systems and providing national leadership for and coordination of the provision of sustainable high-quality TB/HIV diagnostic services.

National Milestones

During the past four years, Boresha Maabara has contributed to the development of national laboratory-related policy documents and national tools including: the National Laboratory Strategic Plan, the Kenya Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards Accreditation (SLIPTA) Guideline, and the Kenya Bio-risk Management Curriculum to name a few. Other achievements include spearheading the integration of quality management systems in the lab, including external quality assessments and lab accreditation.

Supporting Laboratory Planning

Boresha has also been directly supporting 108 laboratories in 10 Kenyan counties. The support includes facilitating comprehensive planning so that the labs are able to stay on track in meeting their public health objectives.

Recently, the project facilitated a laboratory strategic planning meeting for Nairobi City County. The county has been working to finalize a new strategic plan, and the meeting brought together relevant stakeholders to ensure continued comprehensive and coordinated efforts.

The county's plan will include a framework for structured support and will define and track interventions for the next five years.

"We intend to use this plan to resource mobilize across different stakeholders and partners who are interested in working with Nairobi County to achieve our target of ensuring quality health for all."   

—Dr. Carol Ngunu Gitwathi - Deputy Director, Nairobi County Preventive and Promotive Health Services 

See the video below to hear more from participants at the Nairobi County meeting.