The Medical Laboratory Scientists Association of Tanzania (MeLSAT) successfully hosted its 36th Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting which was held from the 26th to the 29th of September, 2023.
The conference connected national and international delegations of Medical Laboratory scientists, scholars, researchers, exhibitors, and various stakeholders in Health Laboratory Science and its related disciplines.
The Guest of Honor in this year’s conference was Hon Dr. Godwin Mollel (MP) who is the Deputy Minister of Health who represented Hon. Kassim Majaliwa (MP), the Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania.
The Guest of Honor before his speech, had the opportunity to visit the exhibitions, receive the introduction of guests from a variety of institutions and listen to a special presentation prepared by the organizing committee regarding The Diagnosis of Urinary Tract Infection presented by Doris Njelekela before listening to a special speech from MeLSAT President Mr. Yahya Mnung’a on behalf of the Medical Laboratory fraternity.
The special presentation aimed at providing awareness on the proper diagnosis of Urinary Tract Infections (U.T.I) to the guests, media, and community at large in response to the rumors and misconceptions among the community on the Laboratory diagnosis of UTI that occurred a couple of months ago.
Mr. Yahya Mnung’a in his speech extended special gratitude to all sponsors and partners for their continued support and outstanding cooperation in making the MeLSAT conference a success and also recognized the past MeLSAT leaders’ contributions before citing some of the challenges facing the association and the medical laboratory practitioners.
He pointed out the need for MeLSAT to have its headquarters in Dodoma and briefly demonstrating the architectural design of the proposed MeLSAT tower that will comprise of School of Medical Laboratory, Training and Clinical Laboratories, Conference/Seminar Halls and Office premises.
The proposed budget for the proposed facility is estimated to cost between 3 to 4.5 billion shillings of which he requested the Guest of Honor for his consideration and support for land allocation and financing towards the project.
Other challenges Mr. Yahya pointed out included delays in procurement and clearing (in ports and harbors) of laboratory equipment and supplies due to a lack of medical professionals at ports, harbors checkpoints and hospital procurement departments. The lack of uniform Medical Laboratory Curriculum for undergraduate degree program among various higher learning institutions. The shortage of Laboratory practitioners at various levels of hospitals and health facilities despite of having a huge number of unemployed health laboratory personnel and lack of balance in the laboratory administration and leadership structure in some hospitals and other healthcare institutions allowing non laboratory personnel assuming leadership positions yet there are qualified laboratory personnel fit for those positions.
Finally, he commended the President, Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan for her deliberate efforts made to improve health services in Tanzania including the building of zonal and regional referral hospitals, district hospitals, health centers, dispensaries, procurement of modern medical equipment and recruiting new staff.
The Guest of Honor in his speech on behalf of the Prime Minister congratulated laboratory staff for their outstanding performance and sacrifices made to ensure the safety of Tanzanians’ health since the outbreak of Covid 19 and Leptospirosis. “Even without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), laboratory staff were front-line workers. Your government is proud of you,” Dr. Mollel said.
He insisted on the need and importance of laboratory personnel in the provision of accurate and reliable laboratory results that will help in the diagnosis and management of patients’ diseases while guaranteeing that the government would work on the challenges outlined and pointed out by MeLSAT President.
The three-day conference was systematized by 11 plenary sessions with approximately 5-7 speakers with 5-10 minutes presentation time, questions-and-answers (Q&A) sessions, plenary discussions, poster presentations, exhibitions and speeches. All centered around the main theme of this year’s conference titled “Application and Advancement of Technology in Laboratory Diagnosis, research, and surveillance for quality assured health services.”
The 5 main speakers who issued Abstract Presentations included Mr. Mzungu D. (Medical and Social Scientist) on Challenges and Opportunities in Laboratory Medicine, Ms. Naima Mkingule (Laboratory Manager-MZRH) on The Challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance, Mr. Godfrey Hongoli (Mentor/Senior Laboratory scientist) on Medical Laboratory Curriculum for BMLS in Tanzania, Prof. Jeremiah Seni (Microbiologist) on Importance of Medical Laboratory in Disease and Research Surveillance and Mr. Shabani R. Mziray (Laboratory Manager-Kibong’oto PHL & Research Scientist) on Advancement in Medical Laboratory for Disease Diagnosis and Intervention.
Exhibitors included Biomeriux/Pyramid Pharma, Malulu Company Limited, Masri Trading and Industries, Crown Health Care, Mindray, CLSI, Lab Equip, HUQAS, KEMRI, Sciex Limited, Phomas Diagnostics, Sahani Health Solution, KAM College of Health Science, Anudha Limited and NMB.
Exhibitors’ speeches came from Biomeriux/Pyramid Pharma, Malulu Company Limited, Masri Trading and Industries, Crown Health Care and Mindray.
Plenary sessions covered topics on Bacteriology, Antimicrobial resistance, Hematology, Parasitology, Virology, Clinical Chemistry, Histopathological Investigation, Laboratory Quality Management System and Accreditation Practices (LQMS), One Health, Educative as well as Innovative Awareness.
Finally, MeLSAT Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held seeing the introduction of new regional leaders and steering committee, the review of the 34th Annual General Meeting (AGM), Zonal Operations, Payment of Membership Annual Fees, Medical Laboratory Week Celebrations, Feedback from NMB Mkono wa Faraja Fund, the opening of MeLSAT NMB Account, the Association’s Development and the Hosting of the next 36th Annual General Meeting Event.