Report on a Workshop on the Laboratory Diagnosis of Measles

The Western Pacific Region of the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a goal of regional measles elimination
with a target date of 2012. To facilitate this goal, and in order to increase the familiarity of staff from some Western Pacific
national laboratories with the technique of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for the detection of anti-measles IgM, a WHO
sponsored workshop was held at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) in May 2005. The
workshop included participants from national laboratories in Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and from
five Pacific Island countries, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea. An observer from
Guam also participated.
In addition to increasing the workshop participants’ familiarity with the Dade Behring Enzygnost® Anti- Measles Virus/IgM
assay by hands-on involvement, the participants learnt to use dried venous blood spots for measles diagnosis. All participants
successfully completed the practical component of the workshop. The workshop also included informal seminars on troubleshooting problems in EIA, good laboratory practice, data management in the laboratory and transporting infectious and
diagnostic material.
The EIA measles IgM calculation worksheets and the seminar on good laboratory practice were considered to be particularly
useful by the majority of participants. The workshop was considered a success in terms of equipping participants with the
knowledge and capacity to perform accurate measles IgM testing for both serum and dried venous blood spots. It also
provided an introduction to proficiency testing. Pages 159 - 163