ICMR-RMRC lab gets NABL accredition

Bhubaneswar: HIV-1 viral load testing laboratory of ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) Bhubaneswar has received prestigious NABL accreditation. It is the only non-NACP (National AIDS Control Programme) laboratory in the country to get this accreditation.The National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) is an accreditation body under the Quality Council of India (QCI). The laboratory has already conducted around 36,000 HIV tests since May 2024. Odisha has 15 anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centres in 14 districts.RMRC Bhubaneswar official sources said India has 10 non-NACP laboratories. Only RMRC Bhubaneswar has received this NABL accreditation. “To ensure quality of testing, QCI gives NABL accreditation to laboratories after evaluating the whole process in a detailed manner.The QCI team reviews whether the institution follows guidelines, how the staff report the HIV test results, follows biosafety, maintains quality of samples and storage of the samples. “After rigorous review and verifying around 100 files, the NABL accreditation is being provided,” said an official of the RMRC Bhubaneswar.“Properly assessing viral load is important in HIV testing. Our Cobas 5800 (Roche) machine is used for this. If we maintain quality, we can immensely help in controlling HIV infection. The certification is the reflection of our top-quality control approach,” said Sanghamitra Pati, director of RMRC Bhubaneswar.