Canada sending third mobile lab to West Africa to help with Ebola fight

HEALTH

Canada sending third mobile lab to West Africa to help with Ebola fight

Helen Branswell The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, January 14, 2015 7:50AM EST Last Updated Wednesday, January 14, 2015 7:50AM EST

Canadian research at heart of Ebola treatment

Gary Kobinger works in a mobile laboratory installed by specialists of the National Public Health Agency of Canada, in Mweka, Congo, Friday, Sept. 28, 2007. Scientists at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory are continuing to fine-tune a possible treatment for Ebola virus infection, one of the deadliest known to humankind. (AP/ WHO, Christopher Black)

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TORONTO -- Canada is sending a third mobile laboratory team to West Africa to help with the fight against Ebola.

The third team will be providing laboratory support for Medecins Sans Frontieres at their Ebola treatment facility in Magburaka in Sierra Leone.

The two other Canadian mobile labs are also operating in Sierra Leone.

The National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, which pioneered the use of ultra mobile laboratories in Ebola outbreaks about a decade ago, has had at least one team in Sierra Leone since last June.

In October, the federal government announced it was sending a second mobile lab to help the Ebola response.

The two teams currently in Sierra Leone are providing diagnostic services for treatment units at Kailahun and Magburaka.

The federal government says the new team will assist MSF with another type of testing. It will be analyzing samples from patients in a bid to improve treatment for individual patients. They will be checking electrolyte levels, blood chemistry and running tests to determine kidney and liver health status.

The latest figures from the World Health Organization suggest there have been more than 21,000 cases of Ebola in this long-running outbreak and nearly 8,400 deaths.