1. 1 Emerging Disease Surveillance and Response (ESR) WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) Group Work 1 Quality Assurance Programmes Report from Group A Dr Prem Sanjeev Singh

2. 2 Emerging Disease Surveillance and Response (ESR) WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) Group Work 1 Group A VIP Room Zhen Xu Xia Gang Prem Sanjeev Singh Dong Wang (Christine) Lo Yee Chi (Janice) Dapeng Luo Takato Odagiri Seiichiro Fujisaki Wang Dayan Jeff McFarland

3. 3 Emerging Disease Surveillance and Response (ESR) WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) Current WHO EQAP for detection of influenza A by PCR Strengths? Routine feedback Monitors the maintenace of quality and standards Recognizes capactiy Weaknesses? Not mandatory – laboratories can opt out Areas to improve? Adjust frequency of testing based on previous results

4. 4 Emerging Disease Surveillance and Response (ESR) WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) Other programmes: do you participate in the following? List the labs participating in the following programmes No for influenza PCR for the Group A countries Fee-paying: –QCMD: Quality Control Molecular Diagnostics, operated by the EU –NEQAS: National External Quality Assessment Scheme, from the UK –CAP: College of American Pathologists, from the US Free: –U. S. CDC Strengths and Weaknesses of the above programmes: no information

5. 5 Emerging Disease Surveillance and Response (ESR) WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) Scope of EQAP: Needs to be expanded? If an NIC performs the test routinely and is not required to have the test confirmed by an Collaborating Center, then there should an EQAP> Virus culture Antivirals (phenotypic or genotypic) Sequencing Serology Others Which labs/NICs are doing each of the above? What methods? If currently not doing, any plan in the mid-term or long term? Priority of launching programme?

6. 6 Emerging Disease Surveillance and Response (ESR) WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) Scope of EQAP: Needs to be expanded? Which labs/NICs are doing the above tests? –China, Hong Kong (SAR), Japan –Fiji is not Which tests? –All three of them If not doing, any plan to do? –Fiji: plan to do viral cultural in the mid-term; this is a high priority

7. 7 Emerging Disease Surveillance and Response (ESR) WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) Preferred features of EQAP? Number of samples: ten (status quo) Type of samples: inactivate virus (status quo) for viral cultural, use lyophilized cultures Frequency : see above: determined by past performance Time to reporting: one month (status quo) minority view: if treated as a clinical sample, should be shorter Format of reports: should be simplified Others