International Accreditation of Central Public Health Laboratories

Two laboratories at the Central Public Health Laboratory, namely the Early Infant Diagnosis Laboratory and the Viral Load Laboratory, were on February 02^nd 2017 ac- credited to international standards (ISO 15189 / 2012) by The South African National Accreditation System. The status is valid for five years as long as the laboratories maintain the standards that will be audited on an annual basis to monitor work practices and adherence to good quality standards.

The accreditation status means that the two laboratories perform laboratory tests to high standards that are comparable and acceptable to ISO15189 / 2012. Laboratories around the world that are accredited by the ISO standard are comparable by their work standards, and are effectively equal regardless of geographical location around the world. Standards include product quality, environmental friendliness, safety, reliability, and economy. These are all things that consumers look for, and often take for granted, when buying a product, but not all companies hold themselves up to such a standard.

The standard was developed by the International Organization for Standardization’s Technical Committee 212 (ISO/TC 212). While the standard is based on ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 9001, it is a unique document that takes into consideration the specific requirements of the medical environment and the importance of the medical laboratory to patient care.

To put it as simply as possible, ISO certified/accredited means that a company has proven that it follows the standards developed by the International Organization of Standardization. So why isn’t it called IOS certified/accredited since it is developed by an organization with that acronym? That is due to the fact that it is an international standard, therefore in different languages it would have a different acronym, so they decided to simply name it “ISO” no matter what language it is in, because after all the standards are supposed to be the same for each country so it only makes sense that the name remains unchanged as well. It is also very close to a Greek word, isos, which means “equal”, another reason for the choice of acronym. That is why being an ISO certified/accredited company is such a big deal, it sends a clear message to consumers and other companies that the product being sold is worth buying.