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.