WHO annual accreditation visit to EPI laboratories in China
12 November 2011 - Experts from WHO HQ/WPRO and US CDC reviewed WHO regional reference polio and measles laboratories in China CDC for the annual accreditation during 3-4 November. In addition, 10 experts from WHO HQ/WPRO, US CDC, JICA and China CDC reviewed 13 provincial polio and measles laboratories in Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Jilin, Tianjin, Jiangxi, Shanghai, Shandong, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. Due to the wild poliovirus outbreak in Xinjiang, China CDC introduced molecular detection of polioviruses among polio provincial laboratories for rapid detection of wild polioviruses. Provincial CDC in Xinjiang efficiently processed wild polio outbreak related samples and environmental samples during September -October 2011 with the support of China CDC and other provincial CDC. All 13 polio provincial laboratories and 12 measles provincial laboratories were fully accredited for 2012 by WHO accreditation review teams. The WHO regional reference laboratory for Japanese encephalitis in China CDC was also reviewed and accredited for 2012 by WHO HQ and WPRO. The findings and recommendations from the accreditation review were debriefed and discussed with MOH China and China CDC on 12 November 2011. The subnational polio laboratories in China will introduce the new algorithm for virus isolation and real time PCR for intratypic differentiation and VDPV screening in 2012.