National Flu Center: NHL Sets To Test For Covid-19 In Myanmar

Since 26 February 2008, the National Health Laboratory (NHL) has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a national flu center and conducts tests on flu and respiratory viruses and assist in surveillance and treatment of communicable respiratory viruses.

The NHL has been working hard to analyze the COVID-19 acute respiratory disease in Myanmar since it began spreading in China. While the NHL had the experts and machinery it needed, it continued to acquire other necessary lab equipment.

NHL received the lab equipment from Thailand’s Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Science (AFRIMS) through WHO of Infectious Diseases (NIID), National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM) and Juntendo University through the Japanese Embassy and JICA.

Currently, NHL runs lab tests on samples from patients for signs of COVID-19 together with WHO’s designated laboratory and they both have produced consistent results. Thus, NHL will begin running independent lab tests on 20 February.