FAO in Rwanda

Ensuring the safe shipping of infectious substances in Rwanda

Vestine Nyirandahiriwe working in the lab at RAB station in Ngoma. ©Vestine Nyirandahiriwe
22/07/2019

Infectious diseases outbreaks can negatively impact the areas of public health, economy, and tourism. In order to effectively respond and manage these outbreaks, Africa faces some capacity gaps to strengthen disease management.

One of the urgent and important aspects to deal with disease outbreaks are to better handle and ship infectious substances. Rwanda ships samples of infectious substances by air on a regular basis to international laboratories to help the country make an informed decision about a disease, and the number increases when there’s a disease outbreak in the country. When the shipping is handled unprofessionally, some of these infectious substances could be extremely hazardous.

FAO, through the Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Disease (ECTAD), supported a lab personnel at the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), Vestine Nyirandahiriwe, to participate in a regional training workshop on Diagnostic sample packaging and shipment from 5 - 8 March 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya under the International Air Transport Association (IATA) training program.

Improving diagnostic sample packaging and shipment capacity

The week-long training aimed to equip Vestine and other participants with knowledge and skills on properly packaging and shipping infectious substances by air, and sending them to reference laboratories.

With no prior experience in shipping infectious substances by air, Vestine acquired the necessary competencies that are in line with the international requirements and standards.

“The problem we face in Rwanda is the low number of professionals with these skills to ensure efficient shipping of infectious substances,” said Vestine Nyirandahiriwe.

Nyirandahiriwe continued “The training was substantially relevant to the needs of my work. During the training, I was introduced to the information, knowledge, and skills that now enable me to perform shipping by air, consistently with other countries and taking into account the safety of our environment and communities. Moreover, I got the certificate to legally perform the shipping of infectious substances by air as it is a national and international requirement.”

Infectious substances and One Health

Infectious substances are those dangerous substances that if exposed to the environment, it could infect or contaminate, leading to causing diseases, permanent disabilities or death to the living organisms of that environment (human beings, animals, plants, microorganisms and others). Some of those include Biological Product (e.g., vaccine, antitoxin, etc.) or infectious human or animal patient specimens.

During the process of shipping, the shipper classifies documents, marks, labels, and packages as infectious substances. Therefore, the process requires to be carried out by a professional personnel with skills in handling to minimize biosafety risks.

This training also contributes to building and strengthening the capacity of Rwanda’s One Health platform to rapidly detect and respond to emerging disease crises threatening animal and human health.

Contact:

Teopista Mutesi | Communications Specialist | Email: [email protected] OR [email protected]