Consultative Diagnostic Services

Our service includes the laboratory diagnosis and consultation for the treatment, prevention and control of viral diseases in KwaZulu-Natal.

We provide a Virology Diagnostic Service to all Health Facilities in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Health (http://www.kznhealth.gov.za/) which provides all healthcare services to about 9.2 million people (80%) in KZN in the Public Sector.

We are a SANAS Accredited Medical Laboratory (Facility Accreditation Number: M0531) in accordance with the ISO 15189:2012 Standard.

We provide fully automated testing to do Enzyme Linked Immuno-Assays (ELISAs) for various viruses such as HIV, HAV, HBV, HCV, Rubella, Cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, HSV 1/2 serological markers.

Our HIV testing including viral load, PCR for Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) and Drug Resistance are as part of our National Priority Programs (NPP).

We offer a wide range of automated real-time PCR testing for viruses such as CMV, VZV, HSV and Parvovirus, Respiratory Viruses and Enteroviruses.

Our total workload was 1 617 949 (average 134 886/month) from April 2020 to March 2021 which is a considerable increase compared to the period from April 2019 to March 2020. We started SARS-CoV-2 PCR on 20 March 2020 and Rapid Antigen testing in mid- December 2020.

Guidelines on Clinical utility of tests and Sample Collection is detailed in our Sample Manual

We provide Specialist coverage of HIV Viral Load, HIV PCR and SARS-CoV-2 testing in our Laboratories at: Addington, Ngwelezane, Edendale and Madadeni Hospitals. The four Laboratories released 1 538 521 results in 2019/2020 and 1 689 619 results in 2020/2021 reporting years.

We collaborate closely with the NICD (https://www.nicd.ac.za/) in National and International surveillance for Influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and HIV, as part of our Clinical Diagnostic Services.