NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 10- The Kenya AIDS Vaccine research centers have been awarded the best in Africa.
The two laboratories were ranked on top of 10 others in Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa.
The awards came after nearly one year of rigorous assessment by 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.
IAVI has devolved its function and has now been supporting emerging issues on infectious deceases such as Covid19, Ebola, and yellow fever among others.
While handing over the awards, IAVI Director Bashir Farah said the organization supported the research centers both in infrastructure, personnel and equipment.
One is in Kenyatta National Hospital while the other centre is located within Kangemi Health centre.
Farah observed that IAVI has been monitoring the performance of the two labs in the last 12 months.
After an assessment, he said IAVI 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,” he said.
Clinical Research Centers are classified into two which include tire one for the big labs and tire two for the small labs.
KAVI-KNH is categorized in tier 1 while its sister lab in Kangemi is categorized under tier 2.
“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,” he explained.
“The outcome showed the two labs can compete with any lab in the world.”
KAVI Director Prof. Walter Jaoko said the laboratories test products for research.
“Rating KAVI as the best labs in Africa is very important for us,” said Prof. Jaoko.
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