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Enhancing WHO EQAP for Influenza A Detection: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Improvement Areas

This document summarizes a plenary discussion on the WHO External Quality Assurance Program (EQAP) for the detection of Influenza A by PCR, highlighting its strengths such as aiding labs in identifying and correcting mistakes. It addresses weaknesses including reliance on paper reports and offers suggestions for improvement, like web-based data entry and the inclusion of low-pathogenic H9 strains. The conversation also touched upon participation in various quality assurance programs, assessing their strengths and weaknesses, and exploring the scope for expanding EQAP features to enhance virus culture and sequencing efforts.

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Enhancing WHO EQAP for Influenza A Detection: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Improvement Areas

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Introduction to Group Work 1 Quality Assurance Programmes

  2. Group Work 1

  3. Plenary - Feedback at 09:45

  4. Current WHO EQAP for detection of influenza A by PCR Strengths? • Helps labs to correct mistakes, learn from mistakes • Can have several staff run the panel • Panel sent directly to lab (not stuck in customs), condition good Weaknesses? • Paper reports and lots of printing • Doesn’t have unsubtypeable influenza A virus Areas to improve? • Web-based data entry although may not be ideal for all countries • Consider including a low path H9 (some labs could identify)

  5. Other programmes: do you participate in the following? List the labs participating in the following programmes Fee-paying: • QCMD (Indonesia paid for by Welcome Trust) • NEQAS • CAP Free: • CDC pilot (Thailand yes, Indonesia yes, Sri Lanka not yet, in discussions with Myanmar) Strengths and Weaknesses of the above programmes - Do we need to participate in more than one? - CDC panel requires extraction on all specimens; can test limit of detection; may be available beyond NICs

  6. Scope of EQAP: Needs to be expanded? • Virus culture – • Can do - Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Australia • This should be expanded first (priority, maybe WHO should support) • Antivirals (phenotypic or genotypic) – • Can do – Australia (both), Thailand (both), Indonesia (sequencing), Myanmar sends to Japan • Less important for EQAP • Sequencing • Can do – Thailand, Indonesia, Australia • EQAP – Australia developing one with CDC • Serology • Can do – Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka (can do but don’t any more)

  7. Preferred features of EQAP? • Number of samples • Type of samples • Include more inactivated viruses • Frequency • Time to reporting • Format of reports • Web-based reporting (but not for all countries)

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