Guyana Builds Local HLA Lab To Expand kidney transplant Capacity With Brazilian Training
WORLD NEWS – GUYANA: Guyana’s transplant program is moving to broaden its kidney transplantation capacity beyond reliance on live donors, with officials advancing plans to develop local laboratory and clinical skills. Health leaders say the strategy will allow the country to evaluate more donor–recipient pairs in-country and pursue additional donor pathways while strengthening clinical expertise through international collaboration.
A major obstacle has been the cost and logistics of compatibility testing. Each HLA compatibility test has been running roughly $3,000 US and samples have had to be shipped abroad for analysis, with Miami cited as a destination for current testing. That expense and the time required to send samples overseas have constrained the program’s ability to perform repeat or widespread crossmatching as part of routine transplant workups.
To change that, the team has purchased the equipment needed to establish an HLA laboratory in Guyana and is arranging staff training in Brazil. Selected laboratory and clinical personnel will travel to Brazil for hands-on instruction in HLA typing and related transplant immunology techniques. The new lab is intended to perform the complex tests at home, avoiding costly overseas processing and shortening turnaround times for compatibility results.
Planners say the investment will not only serve Guyana’s patients but also position the country as a regional resource: several other Caribbean transplant programs have expressed interest in sending HLA samples for review to the new lab. The combined steps — expanding donor source options, building an onshore HLA facility, and training personnel abroad — are framed as a coordinated effort to increase transplant throughput, reduce costs, and build durable capacity across the Caribbean transplant community.
