Uganda emerged second on the African continent with most accredited laboratories.

Officials in the Ministry of Health said the announcement was made during the 6th Biennial Strengthening Laboratory Management Towards Accreditation (SLMTA) Symposium meeting, a pre-conference meeting held on the 10th and 11th of December in Cape Town, South Africa.

SLMTA is a PEPFAR flagship program for strengthening laboratory systems.

It was launched in 2009 simultaneously with the Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards Accreditation (SLIPTA) program, which provides a stepwise approach to measuring progress towards accreditation.

While SLIPTA measures the laboratory quality by conducting audits, SLMTA provides the how-to with training and mentoring.

These two programs complement each other and together they provide the tools and processes needed to turn the aspirations of lab accreditation into reality.

There is no doubt that the laboratory landscape has been transformed in the past 13 years.