LETTER: In 1998, I started my career as a medical laboratory technologist, and within a month of working, the Nipah outbreak occurred, from September 1998 until May 1999.
During those months, I was exposed to the true role a laboratory professional plays in helping to quickly diagnose and detect the source of an infection.
But I often wonder if my friends, family, the public and even my other healthcare colleagues understand what it is we do and why we matter to your health.
Our profession has always been here. We have been conducting critical and lifesaving laboratory medicine testing for decades. By the mid-1800s, lab tests had been introduced to detect tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid and diphtheria, but cures for these diseases would not come until later.
Doctors, physicians and other medical professionals rely on our expertise and technical know-how on thousands of laboratory tests, from pre-analytical to the post-analytical work. According to the Clinical Leadership and Management Review (2002), author Rodney Forsman states that 94 per cent of objective medical data in a patient's record comes from laboratory professionals. Laboratory professionals contribute to wellness testing and diagnosis, guide treatment and monitor patient progress.
In 2003, after another pandemic, I wrote to newspapers an article titled "Lab workers the unsung heroes in the fight against SARS" to state our disheartened feeling as lots of kudos have been given to frontliners, but not a speck of mention of laboratory professionals who are also risking our lives and working round the clock.
And now the evolving SARS-CoV-2 Covid-19 pandemic has the world in its grip and lab professionals on one end are at increased risk of contracting the infection, and on the other end have to deal with the challenges that come with the outbreak. Our profession is at a critical crossroads yet again. Literature reviews confirm the fact that the etiological diagnosis of Covid-19 was not possible without laboratory services, either by detecting the pathogen in biological samples with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or by quantifying antibody response immunologically.
According to the latest Health Ministry report, the national capability to run Covid-19 tests has increased from 11,500 tests to 16,500 and now to 54,706 tests daily. Thus, like any other healthcare workers, we, too, are working long into the night, even on weekends, since the crisis began.
Despite the challenges, medical laboratory professionals in the country have yet again shown our well-known determination towards the uninterrupted provision of diagnostic services. I would like to reiterate what I said in 2003: "We are the unsung heroes of our times."
HARVINDER KAUR LAKHBEER SINGH
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times