The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has donated 126 cutting-edge GeneXpert tuberculosis (TB) testing machines worth $3 million to Ethiopia.
The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, in a statement, said the donation will make a significant contribution to the government of Ethiopia’s efforts to quickly and effectively identify and diagnose TB and multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) cases.
It further noted that the new machines will reduce the time it takes to diagnose TB from two days to two hours and from two months to two hours for MDR-TB.
The machines were handed over to Ethiopia’s Minister of Health, Dr Lia Tadesse, by the Charge d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ambassador Tracey Ann Jacobson, at St. Peter’s Tuberculosis Hospital.
Data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that Ethiopia is one of 30 high TB, TB/HIV, and MDR-TB burden countries in the world.
According to USAID, Ethiopia has 19,000 registered TB-caused deaths in 2021 alone, which amounts to nearly three Ethiopians dying from TB every hour of every day.
Ethiopia’s health minister said the machines will hugely contribute to narrowing the access gap to rapid molecular TB diagnostics in the country.
Photo source: Addis Standard
