{"id":131780,"date":"2020-12-04T12:56:31","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T22:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=131780"},"modified":"2020-12-07T08:36:21","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T18:36:21","slug":"uh-lab-provides-covid19-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/12\/04\/uh-lab-provides-covid19-tests\/","title":{"rendered":"New <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> lab provides free, rapid result COVID-19 testing to underserved"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_15136\"  width=\"676\" height=\"676\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"676\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8reiqachNU0?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"New Â鶹´«Ã½lab provides free, rapid result COVID-19 test to underserved\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>The University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/tmclinicallab.jabsom.hawaii.edu\">Tropical Medicine Clinical Laboratory<\/a> (<abbr>TMCL<\/abbr>) is ramping up operations to meet its mission of providing free, rapid result (24&#8211;48 hours) COVID-19 testing to those with limited access to healthcare and health insurance, as well as to first responders and health care workers on the frontlines of the pandemic. Opened in October 2020, <abbr>TMCL<\/abbr> is a certified lab at the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa <a href=\"http:\/\/jabsom.hawaii.edu\">John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a> (<abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr>) established through a City and County of Honolulu\/<abbr>UH<\/abbr> partnership with funding from the federal <abbr title=\"Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security\">CARES<\/abbr> Act.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_131793\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-131793\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-jabsom-tmcl-2-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"laboratory staff processing covid tests\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-131793\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-jabsom-tmcl-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-jabsom-tmcl-2-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-jabsom-tmcl-2.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-131793\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo credit: John A. Burns School of Medicine)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;Our goal is to make sure that we can provide such tests to our community as soon as possible, making diagnosis and detection faster,&rdquo; said <abbr>TMCL<\/abbr> principal investigator <strong>Vivek Nerurkar<\/strong>, professor and chair of the <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr> Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology.<\/p>\n<p><abbr>TMCL<\/abbr> is developing and leveraging partnerships with <a href=\"https:\/\/tmclinicallab.jabsom.hawaii.edu\/lab-services\/request-testing\/\">community health centers<\/a> and community organizations to reach underserved populations that include Filipinos, Pacific Islanders and the houseless. As of early December, the lab is processing about 70 tests per day from walk-ins at the community health centers alone.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We are providing focused testing in these communities and have been successful through our partnerships with trusted organizations who are critical in encouraging people to come out and get tested,&rdquo; said <strong>Rosie Alegado<\/strong>, a <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa associate professor of oceanography who serves as the lab\u2019s community liaison lead. &ldquo;We are intent on continuing to build relationships with grassroots community organizations to get these services to people who need it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_131791\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-131791\" style=\"width: 214px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-jabsom-tmcl-1-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"wide view of the tropical medicine clinical lab\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-131791\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-jabsom-tmcl-1-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-jabsom-tmcl-1-93x130.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-jabsom-tmcl-1.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-131791\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo credit: John A. Burns School of Medicine)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That includes on-location testing events in the communities where the underserved reside. At one recent event in November, about 60 P\u0101lolo Valley Homes residents were tested at the public housing complex in collaboration with the Waik\u012bk\u012b Community Health Center, Pacific Islander Service and the Honolulu Bible Church. With the rapid test results and community groups in place, a family with a positive test result was provided immediate assistance including a Waik\u012bk\u012b hotel room to quarantine and testing for extended family members and other close contacts. Health experts say the virus can spread quickly in these types of communities if not aggressively addressed.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If we\u2019re going to stamp out COVID-19 in areas and communities with disproportionate infection rates, a high level of face-to-face care has to be given,&rdquo; said Alegado. &ldquo;This requires a network of interfacing services.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><abbr>TMCL<\/abbr> is also providing houseless individuals with free COVID-19 testing through <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/view\/hawaiihomeproject\/about\">Homeless Outreach and Medical Education Project<\/a>, where <abbr>UH<\/abbr> medical students and faculty provide free health services to unsheltered populations. Planning is underway with the University Health Services M\u0101noa to provide up to 200 tests a week to <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa students, faculty and staff, and to dental hygiene and medical students so that they are able to return to clinical training.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The COVID-19 testing is meeting an immediate need, which we are honored to be able to provide,&rdquo; said Nerurkar. &ldquo;This is just the beginning. The lab\u2019s long term goal is to enhance <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s capacity to track emerging pathogens and develop diagnostic tools to detect tropical diseases such as dengue, Zika and rat lungworm.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tmclinicallab.jabsom.hawaii.edu\/lab-services\/request-testing\/\">Visit the <abbr>TMCL<\/abbr> website<\/a> for information on how to get a COVID-19 test and for upcoming community testing events. <\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_131794\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-131794\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-jabsom-tmcl-staff.jpg\" alt=\"jabsom staff standing apart with masks on\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-131794\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-jabsom-tmcl-staff.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-jabsom-tmcl-staff-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-jabsom-tmcl-staff-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-131794\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">JABSOM researchers and staff at the Tropical Medicine Clinical Laboratory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr> Tropical Medicine Clinical Laboratory is serving those with limited access to healthcare and health insurance, as well as first responders and health care workers on the frontlines of the pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,12],"tags":[1411,1416,1329,31,429,9,883,56],"class_list":["post-131780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-video","tag-covid-19","tag-covid-19-uh-helps","tag-houseless-outreach-and-medical-education","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-tropical-medicine-and-medical-microbiology","tag-uh-manoa","tag-university-health-services","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131780"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131916,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131780\/revisions\/131916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}