A technical assistance (TA) mission is currently underway at the Central Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory (CTRL) in Tanzania, led by NTRL/SRL Uganda under the Global Fund-supported Integrated Laboratory System Strengthening (ILSS) project, implemented by the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) in collaboration with Uganda’s National Health Laboratory and Diagnostic Services (NHLDS).
The mission runs from 19th to 30th October 2026 and forms part of ongoing efforts to strengthen quality management systems and expand integrated External Quality Assessment (EQA) schemes across the region. Tanzania is one of 21 countries supported under the project and regularly receives proficiency testing (PT) materials for culture, DST, GeneXpert and microscopy from NTRL/SRL Uganda.
Focus of the mission
- Mentorship and technical support on culture and DST processes within TB proficiency testing programmes
- Joint review of DST performance, including root cause analysis and agreed corrective actions
- Review of ISO/IEC 17043 documents and records in the PT preparation laboratory
- Progress on GeneXpert PT preparation, dispatch and results analysis
- Support for scaling up DST for new and repurposed drugs
- Follow-up on the scale-up of LF-LAM and Truenat PT schemes
- Review of recommendations from previous technical assistance visits
- Follow-up on support to Kibongoto laboratory under the ILSS project
The team began with an opening meeting with the CTRL team and courtesy visits to the Ministry of Health and the National Public Health Laboratory. At the end of the mission, a technical assistance report and a completed root cause analysis with corrective actions will be shared.
The visit reflects our commitment to regional collaboration and to building strong, reliable laboratory systems that deliver quality TB diagnostics. We thank ECSA-HC, the Global Fund and our Tanzanian colleagues at CTRL for their partnership.
