GMC’s HIV lab gets national accreditation

Panaji: The state reference laboratory (SRL) along with integrated counselling and testing center (ICTC) 1 & 2, the diagnostic laboratory for HIV/AIDS at Goa Medical College (GMC) have been awarded the certificate of accreditation by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration of Laboratories (NABL), an agency for certification of testing done in laboratories nationwide.

Run by GMC’s department of microbiology and supported by Goa State AIDS Control Society, the laboratory boasts of giving HIV diagnostic and disease monitoring services as per international standards.

“It is a formal recognition of competence of the faculty and technical staff of the ICTC who have been working hard for this achievement,” an official said.

The facilitation for planning and related approvals was done by GSACS and the whole process was funded and guided by the National AIDS Control Organisation.

Head of GMC’s department of microbiology, Dr Maria Jose Wiseman Pinto, expressed her happiness for the NABL accreditation for the laboratory.