The state was authorized to implement the process to diagnose it.
The State Public Health Laboratory (LESP) of the Jalisco Ministry of Health (SSJ), will begin today to implement the process for the diagnosis of smallpox simian, after federal authorities, through the Institute of Diagnosis and Epidemiological Reference (InDRE) verified the human-medical-technological capacity and equipment of the state institution.
"It is a pleasure for me to announce that this Thursday, October 6th at the Jalisco State Public Health Laboratory we will begin to implement the process for the diagnosis of simian smallpox", announced the head of the SSJ, Fernando Petersen Aranguren, after visiting its facilities. It should be recalled that, to date, the InDRE is the only authority in the country authorized to process and, as the case may be, confirm smallpox diagnoses.
The Secretary of Health explained that due to the increase of smallpox cases throughout the country, the State of Jalisco proposed to the InDRE authorities the possibility that the LESP -whose Molecular Biology Laboratory was recently restored and modernized- could implement the diagnosis of smallpox.
Jalisco was evaluated with great success, making it one of the three states that will be authorized to perform this type of test in its state laboratory.
Denis Santiago Hernandez, head of the Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks of the State of Jalisco (Coprisjal), explained that on September 23rd, InDRE personnel visited the LESP to verify the installed capacity and review compliance with various processes based on national and international standards, such as the standard biosafety and biosecurity practices that guarantee the safety of personnel and the quality of the results.
"To be creditors of the transfer of the molecular diagnosis of simian smallpox, it was necessary to have a minimum compliance of 80 percent of the Evaluation Guide. The qualification of the Jalisco State Public Health Laboratory was 99 percent," highlighted Santiago Hernandez.
In this way, the training on simian smallpox to LESP personnel was carried out at InDRE this week.
According to InDRE's instructions, once the technical transfer of the smallpox diagnosis is completed, Jalisco's LESP will attend the diagnostic needs of ten states, including this entity, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Colima, Durango, Aguascalientes, Nayarit, Zacatecas and Sonora.
The process was also transferred to the state laboratories of the State of Mexico, Quintana Roo and the Central Epidemiology Laboratory of the National Medical Center "La Raza" of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), to regionalize the analysis of smallpox.