Background and Function

The laboratory was established in 1999 with the objective of undertaking community oriented services and research in the field of biomedicine. Our efforts were and still are directed towards standardizing and developing applicable techniques for diagnosing the important endemic diseases in Sudan.

Gastro-intestinal parasite infections, malaria and visceral leishmaniasis (VL) are among the major health problems in the Sudan and therefore enlisted as priorities in our research and service programs. Since Sudan is presently considered by the WHO as being one of six most endemic countries forVL, our research group had started local production of the well-known direct agglutination test (DAT) to assist in diagnosing this killing disease. To cope with sub-optimal tropical temperatures and commonly occurring electric failures, improvements were to be introduced to the locally produced DAT.The successfully in-Ahfad produced DAT was and still used for diagnosis of VL in suspects that are referred to our laboratory from the various hospitals in the Sudan. DAT supplies are also offered free-of-charge to the various national research institutions that are involved in the diagnosis and research on VL.