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Health

Covid-19: Portugal sends test equipment to Huíla province

The province of Huíla will now be able to carry out tests on the covid-19 locally, as part of a project to strengthen laboratory capacity supported by Portugal and which also includes training for health professionals.

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As part of the project, a PCR-RT device will be installed in the laboratory of the university Mandume ya Ndemufayo, in Lubango, which was delivered today, in a symbolic ceremony, by the director of the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (IHMT-UNL), Filomeno Fortes, to the Angolan ambassador in Lisbon, Carlos Alberto Fonseca.

In addition to this device, accessory testing equipment, such as reagents, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE's) will also be sent.

"This equipment has the capacity to carry out 120 tests per day and the results are known within a maximum of 24 hours," Filomeno Fortes told reporters, underlining the "added value" it represents to start doing the tests and obtain the results locally and no need to send samples outside the region.

The reinforcement of the laboratory is one of the first results of the work of the "task-force" set up three months ago to support the Portuguese-speaking African countries in the fight against covid-19 by IHMT-UNL, Centro Ciência LP, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia ( FCT) and Camões Institute.

The project also includes laboratory training to support provincial health units in the diagnosis of covid-19, as well as participation in research projects in the field of combating infectious diseases in Africa.

In the conversation with the journalists, Filomeno Fortes also underlined the central role of the province of Huíla in the fight against the spread of the disease, namely from neighboring countries like Namibia.

"Namibia has the disease transmission situation getting worse and the province of Huíla acts as a buffer province, supports the provinces of Cunene, Cuango-Cubango and Namibe and the installation of this laboratory will allow the country to start to monitor "the disease in that area, he said.

The director of IHMT-UNL pointed out, on the other hand, that this region of Angola is now starting to have lower temperatures, which should lead to an increase in respiratory diseases.

"There needs to be capacity for differential diagnosis between respiratory diseases and covid-19. The province is the second most populous in the country and with the most elderly population, therefore more susceptible to the pandemic", added the Angolan doctor and specialist in malaria and diseases tropical.

For Filomeno Fortes, "strengthening the province of Huíla is essential for the country to continue to maintain control of the epidemiological situation" of covid-19.
The strengthening of laboratory capacity in the Angolan province results from a joint action with the Center for Research in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources of the University of Porto (CIBIO), which manages a network of twin labs in Africa under the UNESCO "Life" chair on Land ".

The executive coordinator of CIBIO, Carlos Pereira, explained that the organization is strengthening and readjusting the capacity of the laboratories that it already has in the field to carry out tests on the covid-19.

"We have a central laboratory in Angola that is already providing some support to patients, but it is not being possible to do tests. The 120 tests carried out until last week on the population in the province of Huíla were sent to Portugal," he said.

"Testing has been minimal," he said, adding that the laboratory at Mandume ya Ndemufayo University, which initially had pedagogical and training competence, will undergo "a small readaptation" in order, together with the central hospital, to carry out diagnostic tests of the new coronavirus.

The IHMT-UNL, Ciência LP and FCT initiative is part of the Action Plan in the health response to the covid-19 pandemic between Portugal, the PALOP and Timor-Leste, coordinated by Camões - Cooperation and Language Institute (IC).

The president of the Camões Institute, Luís Faro Ramos, also present at the ceremony, underlined the importance of "partnership and solidarity" between Portugal and the Portuguese-speaking countries in the fight against covid-19, considering that it will "win another scale" and "boost other actions" support "in the future.

The health response plan to the pandemic, announced last week by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, foresees the provision of three million euros to support the PALOP (Portuguese-speaking African Countries) and Timor-Leste to combat the spread of covid-19.

In addition to the three million euros, the plan, which is expected to last for one year, also involves the provision of medical supplies and personal protection, in a total of around 800 thousand articles and 95 training actions.

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