Project News

Training course on basic knowledge and laboratory diagnosis of Anthrax was taken place in province of Yen Bai from 17 July to 19 July, 2013. Participants consisted of 10 bacteriologists;6 from Yen Bai, 1 Thai Nguyen, 1 Nghe An and 2 Cao Ban PCPM. Lecturers and supervisors included Dr. Okutani from NIID, Japan and Dr. Thu Ha (Head of Laboratory of Rare Bacteria) and BSc Thanh Hai from NIHE, Hanoi. This training course focused on augmentation of diagnosis capacity of Anthrax and strengthening of laboratory network among laboratory staffs from other PCPMs directed by Yen Bai PCPM covering the northern-mountain area where most of Anthrax often takes place in Vietnam every year. Yen Bai PCPM was selected as the training center because this center has a well-equipped facility of BSL2 aided by ADB (Asian Development Bank) and has a possibility to play a leading role to construct laboratory network of Anthrax diagnosis in these areas. Cultivation of Bacillus anthracis, highly hazardous pathogens, should be conduct in a BSL3 facility. Once Anthrax outbreak occurs in these areas, a rapid and proper diagnosis in the frontier PCPMs with detection of Anthrax-related plasmid genes as the first screening test might allow us to make a rapid transport of the suspected materials to NIHE for definite diagnosis and to investigate the origin of outbreaks in order to prevent it from spreading into neighbor environments. For this purpose, it is essential to prepare the SOP of Anthrax diagnosis , which is suitable for the actual situation of frontier PCPMs with special reference to the outcome of this training course. JICA and NIHE would be expected to continuously support to evaluate such SOP and to introduce a more rapid/simple genetic testing system into the frontier PCPMs.

Participants on training course of Anthrax

Microscopic observation of Bacillus anthracis by Gram staining