Capacity Building for Folate Measurement

Through a CDC Foundation collaboration with Nutrition International’s Folate Task Team, CDC is supporting training and facilitating capacity development to conduct folate microbiologic measurements in multiple international laboratories. Low blood folate concentrations in women of childbearing age increase the risk of neural tube birth defects in their offspring. The folate microbiologic assay will allow countries to assess population folate status. This will have a long-term global health impact by providing countries with the knowledge to identify folate insufficiency, determine appropriate interventions and reduce the risk of neural tube defects.

Folate Microbiologic Assay Training Video

As part of the collaboration, lab technicians participate in training with CDC and various materials have been developed to assist with training needs. This featured video was created to aid in folate microbiologic assay training. In addition, the training video has been segmented as individual vignettes so that those wishing to review a key part of the assay can link directly to that section of the video without having to find it in the full-length version. Links to these vignettes are included below.