Performance of Eastern Mediterranean Region laboratories in the World Health Organization external quality assessment programme for arbovirus diagnostics.

BACKGROUND

Arboviruses such as dengue virus, yellow fever virus, Zika virus and chikungunya virus are major threats to human health globally, including countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR).

AIMS: This study aimed to assess laboratory proficiency in EMR countries for detection of dengue virus, yellow fever virus, Zika virus and chikungunya virus.

METHODS

A global external quality assessment programme for arbovirus diagnostics was developed and run in 2016 and 2018. National-level public health laboratories were instructed to apply the polymerase chain reaction detection method on specimen panels containing dengue virus, yellow fever virus, Zika virus and chikungunya virus.

RESULTS

Over both rounds of the programme, 100% of participating EMR laboratories correctly detected yellow fever virus and chikungunya virus, ≥ 84.6% detected dengue fever virus and ≥ 76.9% detected Zika virus.

CONCLUSION

While participating EMR countries demonstrated good proficiency in detecting arboviruses, only half of them were enrolled in the global external quality assessment programme, providing an incomplete picture of regional capacity. Effort should be put into increasing participation in subsequent rounds.