Celebratelab Hosts West Africa’s Largest Laboratory Professional Conference

Monrovia, Liberia, April 21, 2019 —–CelebrateLAB, the largest gathering of laboratory professionals in the ECOWAS region, will host its fifth gathering April 23-24 at the Monrovia City Hall in Sinkor, Monrovia.

The two-day event will bring together laboratory scientists from public and private sectors, officials from the World Health Organization, Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Liberia (NPHIL)

Laboratory experts and other health officials will share knowledge and experience on best practices that make sense for West Africa. The core audience is the laboratory scientist who makes a difference by treating every patient sample with care.

CelebrateLAB Ambassadors from Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Liberia have pledged to improve regional laboratory diagnostics. Dr Dougbeh Chris Nyan, one of the conference ambassadors, an industry innovator and Chief Executive and Scientific Officer of Shufflex Biomed (USA and Liberia), said, “we have the ingenuity to take Africa’s scientific destiny into our own hands for the benefit of humanity.”

The 2014 Ebola Virus outbreak in West Africa exposed the vulnerabilities of regional health systems and highlighted the urgent need for collaboration and experience-sharing as populations move across borders.

This year’s theme, “Bio-risk Management in West Africa,’’ touches all aspects of laboratory medicine. CelebrateLAB 2019 emphasizes strengthening collaborations across West African borders and promoting public-private partnerships.

Candace Eastman, CEO of Africabio Enterprises, said “CelebrateLAB is all about striving for better health outcomes.”

GIZ, the German development organization is one of the event’s sponsors. GIZ works with the Liberian Ministry of Health and the National Public Health Institute of Liberia to strengthen laboratory and biomedical capacity through training, mentorship, and the establishment of a regional biomedical engineering workshop and microbiology lab.

During the event, GIZ will facilitate a workshop that will focus on product life cycle management, preventive  maintenance, share lessons learned, and emerging best practices for strengthening the workforce and supporting quality improvements in public laboratories and biomedical workshops.