WHO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, held a subregional training workshop on quality of laboratories. Laboratory services are involved in different phases of alert and response systems, including detection, investigation and response and are one of the eight core capacities required for implementation of the International Health Regulations (2005).

In order to meet the criteria for implementation, public health laboratories should be able to provide reliable and timely identification of infections that may cause public health events of international concern. To build such capacities, a public health laboratory must have an effective laboratory quality management system to ensure the release of the results in a safe, reliable and timely manner. Thus, the main goal of the training workshop was to provide the participants with the necessary information, guidelines and assessment tools, as well as the skills to use them for establishing and strengthening the laboratory quality management system in order to achieve the highest level of accuracy and reliability.