ASLM
African laboratory medicine professional society; co-launched ARILAC AMR network with Africa CDC and EU.
Last refreshed: 7 May 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Can ASLM's professional network turn ARILAC's funding into functioning AMR labs across eight countries?
Timeline for ASLM
Co-launched ARILAC in Addis Ababa on 6 May as African laboratory medicine partner
Pandemics and Biosecurity: Africa CDC and EU launch ARILAC for AMR- What is ASLM and what does it do in African healthcare?
- ASLM is the African Society for Laboratory Medicine, a professional society founded in 2011 that represents lab medicine professionals across Africa and works to strengthen laboratory systems, accreditation, and workforce capacity.
- What role does ASLM play in ARILAC?
- ASLM is a co-founder of ARILAC alongside Africa CDC and the EU. It provides professional networks, accreditation frameworks and workforce training to build functional AMR surveillance labs in the 8 target countries.Source: Africa CDC
- How bad is the AMR testing gap in African medical labs?
- Of more than 50,000 medical laboratories assessed across 14 African countries, only 1.3% conduct routine AMR testing, meaning drug-resistant infections are effectively invisible to surveillance across most of the continent.Source: Africa CDC / ARILAC launch
Background
ASLM (African Society for Laboratory Medicine) is a pan-African professional society that represents laboratory medicine professionals across Africa, founded in 2011. Its membership spans clinical laboratory scientists, pathologists, and public health laboratory specialists across the continent. ASLM works to strengthen laboratory systems, accreditation pathways, and workforce capacity, and operates as a key civil-society partner to Africa CDC, WHO AFRO, and the US CDC's Global Health Security Agenda programmes. It publishes the African Journal of Laboratory Medicine and hosts the biennial Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC), which has become a major convening forum for continental health policy.
ASLM co-launched ARILAC (Advancing Regional Integrated Laboratory Capacity for AMR Control) in Addis Ababa on 6 May 2026 alongside Africa CDC and the European Union, through the Team Europe Initiative on Sustainable Health Security. ASLM's role is to provide the professional network and technical standards for building functional AMR surveillance labs in the programme's 8 target AU member states. The programme addresses the structural gap where only 1.3% of more than 50,000 assessed labs in 14 African countries conduct routine AMR testing. ASLM's accreditation frameworks and workforce training capacity are central to translating ARILAC's four-year funding into operational diagnostic capability.
