EQAsia - Fleming Fund Regional Grant

Strengthen the provision of External Quality Assessment (EQA) services across the One Health sector in South and Southeast Asia.

The overall aim of the EQAsia project is to improve the Quality of Bacteriology Diagnostics for Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AMR) in the Asian region. The EQAsia project is supported by the Fleming Fund (UK Aid Programme).

The project is split into two phases. In the first phase, which was conducted from January 2020 to August 2020, the aim was to map the coverage, availability and uptake of EQA programmes across One Health (OH) sectors in the South- and Southeast Asian region.

The mapping showed a considerable number of providers/programs in the region, which suggests some overlaps. Potential gaps in the content and comprehensiveness of individual programs may also be a contributing factor to why the National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) choose to participate in multiple programs. Based on these observations, the aim of the second phase of the project is to strengthen the provision of EQA services to NRLs/centers of excellence across OH sectors. This phase runs from October 2020 to February 2022.

To strengthen the EQA services, the project will offer a comprehensive EQA program over three rounds in 2021, which will cover all WHO GLASS pathogens. The EQAs will focus on both pathogen identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST).

The EQAs will be supported by training workshops, an IT module that enables instant reports as well as relevant follow up activities to underperforming laboratories.

Read more about the project in the flyer.

​EQAsia Flyer

(PDF document)

​The consortium

EQAsia comprehends a multidisciplinary consortium of experts gathered to deliver the outputs of the Fleming Regional Grant – DTU (Technical University of Denmark), IVI (International Vaccine Institute), NIH (National Institute of Health, Thailand) and CU (Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University).

DTU is the consortium coordinator and, therefore, the responsible for the overall management and coordination of the grant. As the lead grantee, DTU is in charge of the contractual agreements between partners, of the interim and exit-meetings, as well as of performing cost analysis of surveillance systems. Regarding EQAs, DTU has to develop the IT module, coordinate strain procurement and select validated EQA candidate strain panels, prepare protocols and provide proficiency testing schemes, and finally, publish the EQA trials. In collaboration with the other partners, DTU has to organize workshops and draft a sustainability plan.

https://www.food.dtu.dk/english

IVI is the regional support for project coordination of activities. One of the IVI’s main responsibilities includes the design, planning and conduct of training and follow up activities, such as site visits to the underperforming laboratories to identify potential areas for corrective and preventive action. IVI is also the leader on stakeholder engagementactivities and alignment across the Fleming Fund grant portfolio. By conducting baseline assessment symposiums and creating a comprehensive list of participants for both workshops and EQAs, IVI aims to create awareness among relevant capacity building partners in each of the Fleming Fund countries as well as in other countries in the Asian region. IVI contribution for the sustainability plan includes the development of a costing tool for analyzing the costs of the EQAs and collect data to create a budget forecasting to estimate the sustainability costs of the program for 10 years.

https://www.ivi.int

NIH is the regional EQA provider and facilitator for the human health sector. NIH coordinates the regional network of participating labs and provision of proficiency testing schemes and lyophilized bacteria (EQA materials) including report for the human health sector. NIH also supports project meetings and workshops, as well as capacity building activities for countries with low EQA score.

http://narst.dmsc.moph.go.th

CU is the regional EQA provider and facilitator for the animal health and food safety sector. CU coordinates the regional network of participating labs for the animal health sector including preparing EQA materials, bacterial strain validation, lyophilization, shipment and writing reports for this sector. CU contributes for the training workshops and supports capacity building for the laboratories with low EQA score.

http://www.cuvetamr.vet.chula.ac.th/

EQA summary reports

Documents for EQAsia EQA6 - March - June 2023

Documents for EQAsia EQA5 - September - November 2022

Confirmation parcel received

(PDF document)​

EQA5_Test forms

(PDF document)​

Protocol_EQAsia-EQA5-2022

(PDF document)​

Matrix EQA 2022_Test forms

(PDF document)​

Protocol_EQAsia-Matrix 2022

(PDF document)​

Documents for EQAsia EQA4 - April - June 2022

Confirmation parcel received

(PDF document)​

EQA4_Test forms

(PDF document)​

Documents for EQAsia EQA3 - November-January 2021-2022

Test forms

(PDF document)

Documents for EQAsia EQA2 - August-September 2021

Test forms

(PDF document)

Documents for EQAsia EQA3 - November-January 2021-2022

Test forms

(PDF document)

Documents for EQAsia EQA2 - August-September 2021

Test forms

(PDF document)

Test form matrix

(PDF document)

​Documents for EQAsia EQA1 - February-March 2021

Test forms

(PDF document)

Workshop 1 - January/February 2021​

Quality Management Systems

https://www.jottacloud.com/s/26312d4dcf1752d47e29e2040cdb7de3132

External Quality Assessment Systems within EQAsia:

https://www.jottacloud.com/s/26354108aceebe54ab1b7a3cba1b0644a66

Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing

https://www.jottacloud.com/s/2765f0ac4c113174db7b403b53090b97b97

ISO17043

https://www.jottacloud.com/s/2631e777425e99445c48d1603b55499d2e5

Workshop 2 - May 2021

WGS

https://www.jottacloud.com/s/263f4ee13976683458a8a7f6a120c0ea010

PCR

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1e1BMh9poXyIPhieFaib0pbXqGxgYWC0R

Extended QMS

https://www.jottacloud.com/s/276c6ff63c0fd40492ea692c37b58fbd5d1

Workshop 3 - November 2022

Lab training

Presentation 1 _ One Health AMR

Presentation 2 _ Use of PCR

Presentation 3 _ Test design for Lab

Presentation 4 _ Campylobacter isolation and identification

Presentation 5 _ Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing

Presentation 6 _ Microbial Identification

Presentation 7 _ WGS

Protocol 1 _ Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) using diffusion method

Protocol 2 _ Detection of Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamases (ESBL) Interpretation

Protocol 3 _ Detection of inducible clindamycin resistance (D-test)  |  Interpretation

Protocol 4 _ Colistin Broth Disk Elution (CBDE)  Interpretation

Protocol 5 _ Modified Carbapenemase Inactivation Method (mCIM) |  Interpretation

QMS training

Presentation 1 _ Introduction to Quality Management System (QMS)

Presentation 2 _ QMS model

Presentation 3 _ Document Control, Development of Standard Operating Procedures & Good Documentation Practices

Presentation 4 _ Sample Receipt, Handling, Storage and Inventory

Presentation 5 _ Laboratory Audit Conduct & Corrective and Preventive Actions

EQA2 Webinar - May 2022

https://www.jottacloud.com/s/3067a3aa8c6aa8240d68e83f92ca310081a

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