Mr Dominic Dobbin, the Sekyere-East District Director of Health Services, who made the call, said many unqualified persons have taken advantage of the lack of any defined procedure pertaining to the establishment of medical laboratories to set up ineffective laboratories.

Mr Dobbin made the call at the launching of the annual Biomedical Week Celebration of the Medical Laboratory Technology Students Association (MELTSA) of the School of Medical Sciences (SMS), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

The celebration is being held on the theme: "The role of the Biomedic in curbing the Hepatitis and Tuberculosis (TB) menace in Ghana".

Activities of the week celebration include screening of residents of Effiduase and its environs for anaemia and Hepatitis B, and similar screening exercises for Health students of KNUST and Food Vendors at KNUST, a house-to-house campaign and a health seminar.

Mr. Dobbin said a legal framework for setting up of medical laboratories is vital, since laboratory profession, which deals with diagnosis plays a key role in the health delivery system.

Touching on the Hepatitis B disease, Mr. Dobbin said it was gathering momentum explaining that since January, the District had recorded 18 positive cases.

Mr Opoku Ocrah, Head of the Department of Medical Laboratory Technology of the KNUST, described Hepatitis as "a slow killer, which is more dangerous than even HIV and should not be taken for granted."

He attributed its prevalence to the failure of people to keep their environment clean and embrace personal hygiene.

Mr Pet-Paul Wepeba, President of the MELTSA, appealed to the authorities to help set standards in all schools running Medical Laboratory programmes to enhance their efficiencies.