News from Regional Federations and National Associations
Inauguration of the African Federation of Clinical Chemistry

Contributed by Prof. Vanessa Steenkamp, President South African Association of Clinical Biochemistry

The formation of an African Federation of Clinical Chemistry has been a project that the IFCC had wanted to initiate for a number of years. In July 2008, members of the Executive Board of the IFCC were invited to attend the Annual Pathology meeting held at the Cape Sun in Cape Town, South Africa. A workshop was arranged with the aim being to determine in which way the IFCC could help and contribute to education and training in the clinical chemistry field in Africa. The IFCC EB members who attended were the Immediate Past President Professor Jocelyn Hicks, Treasurer Ghassan Shannan, APFCB President Joseph Lopez and Daniel Mazziotta. National representatives from the Africa countries included Dr Angela Amayo of Kenya, Dr Mabel Charles-Davies of Nigeria and Professor Vanessa Steenkamp of South Africa.

During this workshop Professor Hicks discussed the role of the IFCC and the support available. The representatives of the African countries in turn described the state of clinical chemistry in their respective countries. This workshop started to put the concept of the African Federation of Clinical Chemistry in motion. The AFCC will be a regional federation belonging to the IFCC, similar to the Arab Federation of Clinical Biology, the APFCB and COLABIOCLI. The aim of the AFCC will be to promote clinical chemistry in Africa. This will include academic exchange between African countries and other developed countries. African countries will also be provided with the opportunity to attend annual meetings, which is currently not the norm. The AFCC will strive to encourage accreditation and improve the quality of laboratory services in Africa. Other aspects of importance include the development of diagnostic guidelines for specific pathological conditions that are unique to Africa. It was noted that test areas that were important to the developing world included malaria, TB and HIV. Lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are increasing at an alarming rate and require attention. Also of importance are issues such as harmonization of curricula, continuing education programmes, distance learning and postgraduate education.

The inauguration of the African Federation of Clinical Chemistry was held in conjunction with the 5th Biennial Scientific Conference of the Association of Clinical Chemists of Nigeria, 25-28 October 2009, under the auspices of the IFCC. The conference venue was the University of Ibadan. The inaugural dinner took place on the 27th October and the first president of the AFCC was selected – Professor Vanessa Steenkamp. At present Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan and Tunisia are member societies of the AFCC. Presidents of the national societies of clinical chemistry of Nigeria (Professsor Bashiru Okeshina), Kenya (Dr Angela Amayo) and South Africa (Professor Vanessa Steenkamp) attended the inauguration. IFCC Visiting lectureships were awarded to IFCC past-presidents Professor Jocelyn Hicks and Dr Donald Young. They were invited as plenary speakers and were the recipients of awards in recognition of their contributions to the field of clinical chemistry. The theme of the conference was non-communicable diseases and scientific sessions include Lifestyle and disease; Diseases Associated with Ageing and The Environment and Disease.
A hands-on pre-conference workshop in molecular biology was also held. The IFCC delegation visited the clinical chemistry laboratories at the hospitals of the Universities of Ibadan and Lagos. The visit provided us the opportunity to see firsthand the enormous challenges that are faced in Africa and allowed us to identify the key areas requiring immediate attention.
( This report was forwarded by Joseph Lopez)

From L to R: Angela Amayo, Vanessa Steenkamp, Bashiru Okeshina, Jocelyn Hicks, Mabel Charles-Davies

From L to R: Josephine Onakoya, Mabel Charles-Davies , Donald Young, Bashiru Okeshina, Jocelyn Hicks and Vanessa Steenkamp in the inaugural shirts.