KAVI labs top in Africa in new ranking » Capital News

KISII, Kenya Apr 11 – KAVI labs have been ranked the best in Africa by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)

Kenya AIDS Vaccine research centers at the University of Nairobi located at Kenyatta National Hospital and Kangemi health center were awarded best research centers in Africa.

The two labs beat 10 other labs in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa to emerge top.

The awards came after nearly one year of rigorous assessment IAVI, a non-profit organization based in New York which has regional offices in Nairobi and South Africa.

Over the years, IAVI has supported research centers on HIV/AIDs vaccines and it has devolved its function and was now supporting emerging issues on infectious deceases such as Covid19, Ebola and yellow fever among others.

While handing over the awards, IAVI Director Barshir Farah said the organisation supported the research centers both in infrastructure, personnel and equipment.

Farah observed that IAVI has been monitoring the performance of the two labs in the past year and after assessment, it was satisfied by the high standards of the clinical research data generated from the two centers.

“The Labs demonstrated a high level of accuracy and reliability achieving a score of 97.5 percent and emerged as the best labs in the region where IAVI has its presence,” said Farah.

 Clinical Research Centers are classified into two which include big and small labs.

KAVI-KNH is categorized in tier 1 while its sister lab in Kangemi is categorized under the second category.

“KAVI Kangemi health center won the award under the best CRC for the small labs in Africa because of its quality and reliable data that it generated. The outcome showed the two labs can compete with any lab in the world,” said Faraha.

The organisation collaborates with other partners to ensure the quality and integrity of the data generated by the laboratories across the CRCs are of high quality.

“Assessment for all labs is conducted to ensure all data generated are accurate and reliable. The labs are also accredited,” said Mr Farah.

External quality assurance of samples from the labs is conducted and results are evaluated and compared to the other 3,000 labs in the world.

KAVI Director Prof Walter Jaoko said the Labs test products for research and this can be used by the general public.

“Rating KAVI as the best labs in Africa is very important for us,” said prof Jaoko.

He said, science depends on quality from labs and to be recognized as the best lab across Africa is a great honour,” said Prof Jaoko.