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No. 06, “Wijerama House” , Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 07, Sri Lanka Tel : 94 11 2675678 Fax : 94 11 2675678 e-mail : slcmicrobio@sltnet.lk

e NEWSLETTER Sri Lanka College of Microbiologists

Editor’s note At the beginning of another year we would like to invite members to contribute to

improve the scientific writing in all fields related to medical microbiology.

The practice of microbiology is becoming more diverse and challenging. It is

worthwhile sharing our experience in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of

infectious disease with others, especially in issues related to the developing world

where answers are not so straight forward.

Two guidelines have been sent to the members, one for sending abstracts of free

papers for the annual scientific sessions and another for sending articles for the

SLCM bulletin 2015.

SLCM e-Newsletter will be published in the first, second and fourth quarters of this

year. Those who prefer to receive a printed version of the newsletter can send a

request to the college email. Articles will be accepted for the page on ‘Topics of

current interest’ in the newsletter. Short articles may also be forwarded for publication on the college website.

Newsletters and the bulletin will be published on the updated website with the help of

SLCM webmaster.

I thank the editorial board members including the current president, joint

secretaries, webmaster and reviewers of abstracts and articles who will be continuing

to serve this year.

CONTENTS

Editor’s note

Message from the President

News from the college

Message from the webmaster

Topics of current interest

Photo gallery & other news

ISSUE 41 JANUARY 2015

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President’s message I am indeed honoured that the College has entrusted me with the role of the President, and deeply

conscious of the tremendous responsibility that this post entails. I am also very aware of the fact that

I’m a parasitologist whose main interests lie in the prevention and control of helminth infections,

something that is a little outside of the mainstream of clinical microbiology. Because of this, in

persuading College members to serve on the Council, I tried my best to put together a team that can

meet the needs of all our members, as well as the Ministry of Health and other entities that we work

with.

I have been a member of the Sri Lanka College of Microbiologists for about 20 years now and seen at

first hand, how the College has grown and flourished over this period. When I first joined the College

we had less than 50 members, the Annual Sessions lasted for just one day, and we had hardly any other

activities.

Today, we have nearly 200 members, and our College activities include educational programmes like the monthly CME activity and

the other workshops organized by the College, as well as long-running research projects like the Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance

Project and the National Laboratory Based Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance Project. College members function in an

advisory capacity to the Ministry of Health on a number of different activities: hospital quality indicators and patient safety is the

latest, but there are many other long-standing Ministry committees, such as the Task Force in Microbiology, which include

representation from our College. Our immediate Past President Dr. Kumudu Karunaratne and a number of other College members

have been very active in drawing up a series of guidelines for use of antibiotics, which are then adopted by the Ministry of Health.

And of course, our Annual Sessions now last at least 3 days and provide a forum for continuing professional development,

presentation of research findings and most importantly, for fellowship.

All this is possible only because the members of our College have worked tremendously hard to make them happen. Every year, each

new President and Council have pushed the bar higher, and improved the quality of events and activities organized by the College.

Over the past year, Dr. Kumudu Karunaratne and her Council have been amazingly active in promoting the objectives of the College,

as evidenced by the last Annual Report.

During the course of the next year, the new Council and I will try to live up to the expectations created by all those who have

preceded us. But in order to really achieve our full potential, we need the active involvement of all our College members, not just the

Council. I earnestly hope that you will give us that support, so that our College goes from strength to strength.

Prof. Nilanthi de Silva

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NEWS FROM THE COLLEGE

2 SLCM web site – www.slmicrobiology.net

COUNCIL of the SLCM - 2014/2015 President - Prof. Nilanthi De Silva

President Elect - Dr. Kanthi Nanayakkara

Vice President - Dr. Geethani Galagoda

Immediate Past President - Dr. Kumudu Karunaratne

Hony. Secretaries - Dr. Rohini Wadanamby

Dr. Lakmini Wijesooriya

Hony. Treasurer - Dr. Malika Karunaratne

Editor - Dr. Dhammika Vidanagama

Council Members

Dr. Enoka Corea

Dr. Kushlani Jayatilleke

Prof. Nilmini Chandrasena

Dr. Jayanthi Elwitigala

Dr. Jananie Kottahachchi

Dr. Roshan Jayasuriya

Dr. Jude Jayamaha

Events planned for 2015 Activity ( venue) Dates Council meetings

(every 3rd Friday, 1.00 pm, at

MRI Virology Seminar Room)

21 Nov 2014, 19 Dec 2014, 16 Jan 2015, 20 Feb

2015, 20 March 2015, 17 April 2015, 15 May 2015, 19 June 2015, 17 July 2015, 21 Aug 2015, 18 Sept

2015, 16 Oct 2015

CME Sessions

(every 1st Friday, 12.30 pm, Aldo

Castellani Auditorium, MRI)

7 Nov 2014, 5 Dec 2014, 2 Jan 2015, 19 Jan 2015, 6 March 2015, 10 April 2015, 8 May 2015, 5 June

2015, 3 July 2015, 7 Aug 2015, 4 Sept 2015, 2 Oct

2015

Ordinary General Meetings

23 January 2015

08 May 2015 – Tentative date

Meeting for antibiotic guidelines

and national antibiotic policy

27 February 2015

Siri Wickremasinghe Oration /

Induction of President

(Aldo Castellani Auditorium,

MRI)

13 March 2015

Annual Scientific Sessions

(Sri Lanka Foundation)

12 - 14 August 2015

Annual General Meeting

Last week of October / First week of November

2015

24th

Annual Scientific Sessions of the SLCM (12th

-14th

August 2015)

Sri Lanka Foundation (SLF), Colombo 7

Send your abstracts and articles NOW!

Keep your dates free for THE SESSIONS!!

Abstracts to be submitted on or before 21st March 2015

Articles to be submitted on or before 31st March 2015

Important decisions

Decisions made at the OGM held on 23rd of January 2015

A document on qualification norms and test categories in microbiology, virology, parasitology, mycology and immunology was finalized to be sent to SLAB

A document on the job description for MO-IPC (medical officers - infection prevention & control) was finalized to be forwarded to Ministry of Health

The Manual for Infection Prevention and Control, first published by the College in 2005, is to be revised under the leadership of a seven member editorial board.

Procedure and selection criteria for award of Fellowships by the SLCM was approved

Procedure and selection criteria for nomination of the Vice-President of the College was

approved

Theme for the annual scientific sessions was selected as ‘Neglected tropical diseases in Sri Lanka – Working towards elimination”.

Induction of President and the Siri Wickremesinghe Oration is to be held on 13th March 2015, along with presentation of Fellowships to the five earliest Past Presidents of the

college

Other important Council decisions - The Siri Wickremesinghe Oration will be awarded after an open call for submission of

manuscripts by College members; the manuscripts will be reviewed by an Oration Committee before it is awarded. The deadline for submission of manuscripts for the 2015 Oration is 31

January

- Web master to be included in the Editorial Board and to have meetings of the Editorial Board on 08/03/2015 and 12/06/2015

- Combined report on NLBSA and ARSP to be handed over to DGHS at next Task Force

meeting - A workshop is to be held in May 2015 to identify core competencies in Parasitology for

medical undergraduates. Same would be extended to Microbiology for medical undergraduates

in future - Employ a new Company Secretary to update College registration with the

Registrar of Companies

- - Hold 2 more meetings with other professional Colleges to finalize Antibiotic Guidelines

Antibiotic guidelines

The following guidelines have already been issued to state sector

hospitals as Ministry of Health circulars. Few more are yet to be finalised and all guidelines will be printed in the form of a booklet in future. 1. Central Nervous System Infections 2. Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) – Adult 3. Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) in Children 4. Bacterial Endocarditis

5. Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Surgery 6. Infectious Diarrhoeal Diseases- Adult 7. Febrile Neutropenia in cancer patients 8. Bone and Joint Infections 9. Skin and Soft Tissue Infections

Dr. Kumudu Karunaratne

1. Chairperson- Antibiotic guideline subcommittee of the SLCM

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Message from the SLCM webmaster Dr.Roshan Jayasuriya

The Official Web site of the Sri Lanka College of

Microbiologists can now be accessed at

www.slmicrobiology.net . The website is updated regularly so that the members can have

access to the latest news and events related to the college,

Relevant publications, circulars and guidelines will soon be

uploaded to the website for easy access.

Members may submit articles to be published on the website to the

college email - slcmicrobio@sltnet.lk

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We, the Health Ministers of member states of the WHO South-East Asia Region agree to:

1. acknowledge antimicrobial resistance as a major global public health issue; 2. institute a coherent, comprehensive and integrated national approach to combat antimicrobial resistance;

3. develop national antibiotic policy and formulate multisectoral national alliances against antimicrobial resistance; 4. advocate for a multidisciplinary approach by all sectors of the government, with the private health sector proving desired information and following national guidelines;

5. study the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance and asses accurately its impact on public health; 6. regulate the use of antimicrobial agents, both in public and private sectors to prolong and preserve their efficacy;

7. strengthen legislation to prevent the manufacture, sale and distribution of spurious and substandard / not-of-standard-quality and poor quality antimicrobial agent and the sale of antibiotics;

8. promote behavioral change in prescribes and communities through continues training, educational campaigns with process and outcome measures for rational use of antimicrobial agents and emphasizing antimicrobial resistance in medical, dental, veterinary and pharmacy curricula;

9. build increased capacity for efficient surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and its effective use in modifying antibiotic policy;

10. strengthen diagnostic facilities for microbial diseases to facilitate evidence-based antimicrobial prescription;

11. strengthen infection control practices in health care facilities to reduce of burden of microbial disease and health care associated infections;

12. ensure use of antimicrobial agents included in National Essential Drug list, regular non therapeutic use of antimicrobial agents and irrational use in the veterinary and fishery sectors;

13. encourage basic and operational research in areas that in enhance application of various measures to combat antimicrobial resistance;

14. support research and development of new antimicrobial agents especially for neglected tropical disease and facilitate their cost-effective production in the public sector and making them affordable for the poor;

15. advocate healthy lifestyle, cost-effective and essential immunization and other non-pharmaceutical measurers to reduce the disease burden due to microbial diseases;

SLCM web site – www.slmicrobiology.net

Topics of current interest: A reminder on Antimicrobial Resistance

Resistance to antimicrobials remains an

important issue in the day to day practice of

microbiologists.

The deeper we look in to the problem the

greater will be our understanding of the

complexities of the issue. It is obvious that we

need the participation of many different

stakeholders to win this battle. Frequent

reminders will also be needed to sustain these

efforts.

Jaipur Declaration on Antimicrobial Resistance

The South-East Asia Regional Office of the World Health Organization has been supporting the countries in the region to plan and implement

activities to combat antimicrobial resistance. In September 2011 they have held a meeting with health ministers of the region in Jaipur, India where

the health ministers have signed a declaration showing their commitment to the following aspects.

1. Acknowledge antimicrobial resistance as a major global public health issue;

2. Institute a coherent, comprehensive and integrated national approach to combat antimicrobial resistance;

3. Develop national antibiotic policy and formulate multisectoral national alliances against antimicrobial resistance;

4. Advocate for a multidisciplinary approach by all sectors of the government, with the private health sector proving desired information and

following national guidelines;

5. Study the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance and asses accurately its impact on public health;

6. Regulate the use of antimicrobial agents, both in public and private sectors to prolong and preserve their efficacy;

7. Strengthen legislation to prevent the manufacture, sale and distribution of spurious and substandard / not-of-standard-quality and poor quality

antimicrobial agent and the sale of antibiotics;

8. Promote behavioral change in prescribes and communities through continues training, educational campaigns with process and outcome measures

for rational use of antimicrobial agents and emphasizing antimicrobial resistance in medical, dental, veterinary and pharmacy curricula;

9. Build increased capacity for efficient surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and its effective use in modifying antibiotic policy;

10. Strengthen diagnostic facilities for microbial diseases to facilitate evidence-based antimicrobial prescription;

11. Strengthen infection control practices in health care facilities to reduce of burden of microbial disease and health care associated infections;

12. Ensure use of antimicrobial agents included in National Essential Drug list, regular non therapeutic use of antimicrobial agents and irrational use

in the veterinary and fishery sectors;

13. Encourage basic and operational research in areas that in enhance application of various measures to combat antimicrobial resistance;

14. Support research and development of new antimicrobial agents especially for neglected tropical disease and facilitate their cost-effective

production in the public sector and making them affordable for the poor;

15. Advocate healthy lifestyle, cost-effective and essential immunization and other non-pharmaceutical measurers to reduce the disease burden due to

microbial diseases;

16. Develop national and regional mechanisms for regular data sharing, regulating cross-border transfer of infectious materials and bacterial isolates,

sharing best practices of laboratory based surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and practices promoting rational use of antibiotics;

17. Set up a regional mechanism for sharing of mutually agreed antimicrobial resistance data of public health importance relevant to policy making;

18. Develop a regional mechanism for a regular inter country consultative process for reviewing issues related to antimicrobial resistance including

tracking of international movement of resistant organisms both within the regions and among regions.

The Health Ministers of member states of the WHO South-East Asia Region signing this declaration have urged all other WHO Member states as well

as the Director-General and the Regional Director to continue to provide leadership and technical support in building partnerships between governments, the United Nations agencies and the relevant global health initiatives and with academia, professional bodies, nongovernmental

organizations, related sectors, the media and civil society, to jointly advocate and effectively follow-up on all aspects of this Jaipur Declaration on

Antimicrobial Resistance.

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PHOTO GALLERY

INSERT TEXT OR LOGO HERE.

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No. 06, “Wijerama House”, Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 07, Sri Lanka Tel: 94 11 2675678 Fax: 94 11 2675678 e-mail: slcmicrobio@sltnet.lk / slcmicrobio@gmail.com

Annual General Meeting 2014 –

The Annual General Meeting of the SLCM was held at the Global Towers Hotel in Wellawatta on 31st October 2014.

Visit the college website to view more photos…….

Launch of the Bio-safety Manual

The second edition of the Bio-safety Manual for Medical Laboratories was launched at the

AGM 2014. It was edited by the following members of

SLCM Dr. Pranitha Somaratne,

Dr. Geethani Galagoda, Dr. Enoka Corea, Dr. Lilani Karunanayake, Dr. Sujatha

Pathirage and Dr. Jananie Kottahachchi, whereas a

larger group of members have contributed in the revision.

This manual will be printed with funds from the Ministry of Health and will be made

available to medical laboratories in future

Obituary Notice:

Prof. Stanley Dissanayake, one of the ten honorary life members of our College, passed away on 27.01.2015. He

was the Professor of Parasitology and Dean in the Colombo Medical Faculty in the 1960's and worked for a long

time with the WHO subsequently. He was a mentor to many of the senior parasitologists among us.

President's Awards for Scientific Publications The President's Awards for Scientific Publication were started in 2001 by the National Research Council to recognize scientists whose work reached

international standards and to increase national scientific production. The scheme covers all the “hard science” journal titles (excluding the social

sciences), with a Sri Lankan institutional affiliation against at least one Sri Lankan author.

The scheme was initially based on publications in journals listed in the Science Citation Index (SCI). Since there have been a steadily increasing

number of awards over the years, the criteria have been changed from 2010 onwards, with the introduction of a two-tier system. This system includes a

measure of journal quality based on Impact Factor also taking into consideration that different disciplines have widely differing Impact Factors for their

journals, and the quantum of research published by a scientist.

Tier 1: President’s Awards for Scientific Publication

The criteria for selection:

1) A publication in the top 10% of Science Citation Index Expanded journals, ranked on their Impact Factor under each journal category, based on SCI

categorization of journals

OR 2) Two or more publications in Science Citation Index Expanded journals with an Impact Factor of 1 or more in the given year.

Tier 2: National Research Council Merit Awards for Scientific Publication The criteria for selection:

1) A publication in a Science Citation Index Expanded journal with an Impact Factor of 1 or more, in the given year.

If you were the recipient of a Presidential Award in 2014, do send us an email - we expect to publish a list of award

winners in the SLCM website in the near future.