Since 2015, Oneworld Accuracy has been offering EQA programs in clinical nucleic acid testing using dried tube samples. These programs are developed by the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) of Australia as the Science Architect. The use of dried tube samples format overcomes difficulties associated with the importation of infectious materials and the high cost of shipping frozen samples as the DTS samples can be shipped at room temperature.
In developing countries, many tests are done using rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) outside the traditional laboratory setting and by non-laboratory professionals, resulting in a large increase in the number of tests. To adequately monitor the accuracy of the results, it is critical that efforts are made to ensure participation of the testing sites in the national EQA program. However, using conventional serum or plasma specimens may be costly and difficult to implement in these settings as these types of specimen often require stringent conditions for storage and transport.
In 2018, in responding to the need for accurate testing under these conditions, NRL introduced two new dried tube sample EQA for HBV and HCV viral load (DTSB435 and DTSC435 respectively). Since 2018, many participants from countries such as Mongolia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Georgia successfully completed these EQA. Also, in 2018, the HIV nucleic acid test using dried tube samples (DTSI435) was modified to include Early Infant Diagnostic (EID) assays.
These samples for these programs contain dried material which is colored blue for easy visualization and are provided with tubes containing 1.2 mL of reconstitution buffer (Phosphate Buffered Saline).
You can find more information in our Online Catalog.
Please contact us at support@1wa.org if you want more information or to enroll in these programs.
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