Dr Wardak Abdul Qayoum assists the expat microbiologist in supervising the team and carrying out isolation, identification and sensitivity testing of the 3000 bacterial strains expected. He uses a plastic loop to take a colony of bacteria from the culture plate.

MSF has launched for the first time an Antibiotic Resistance Study in Lashkar Gah, Helmand, Afghanistan. A laboratory has been set up in the Boost Hospital where MSF works to carry out the study. The study started in January 2013.