This book is a new edition of a very popular laboratory manual published by WHO in the 1980s. The new edition is necessary because of new procedures and technologies developed since the previous edition that have proved useful to small laboratories in developing countries. These new procedures and technologies have been included in the relevant sections of the manual, and some obsolete procedures have been replaced by more up-to-date techniques.The manual provides a practical guide to the safe and accurate performance of basic laboratory techniques. Intended for use by laboratory technicians working in peripheral-level laboratories in developing countries, the book emphasizes simple, economical procedures that can yield accurate results where resources, including equipment, are scarce and the climate is hot and humid.