Minister of Health Sheikh Dr. Basil Al-Sabah said Monday that receiving the highest international standards in recognition of Kuwait’s National Polio Laboratory bolsters public health services in achieving global sustainable development goals related to health and the New Kuwait 2035 development plan.
Marking the occasion, Sheikh Basil told KUNA that all employees of the ministry are keen to maintain the country’s health security and excellence in performance. He expressed his congratulations to doctors, nursing staff, technicians and workers in the public health sector for this achievement made by the public health laboratories.
For his part, Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr. Ahmad AlManzari praised the level of performance by Kuwait National Polio Laboratory, which approved the highest standards and scored 100 percent in the list of competency tests for 2018. Al-Manzari explained that such global ratio and performance by the laboratory was achieved after assessing the technical capacity and knowledge of the algorithm of the basic poliovirus facility.
He pointed out that the laboratory received within a quality and efficiency program anonymous samples by WHO global network sent by the Netherlands National Institute for Global Health and environment in order to assess its efficiency in isolating viruses from them. He expressed his sincere appreciation for the outstanding contributions that Kuwait continues to make to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, wishing continued cooperation between Kuwait and WHO in the ongoing efforts to eradicate this disease globally in the near future.