Government gets new TB detecting machines

On Feb.10, the Ministry of Health received nine tuberculosis testing machines worth $153,000 as a donation from the US government.

Dubbed GeneXpert machines, the equipment that can form an accurate diagnose of a TB patient in just two hours will enable health workers detect and monitor both tuberculosis and drug-resistant tuberculosis. The donation comes at the time when the country is registering an estimated 41,000 undiagnosed TB cases each year, according to a prevalence survey conducted last year.

Receiving the machines from US ambassador Deborah Malac, Health Minister incharge of General Duties Sarah Opendi said 112 health facilities in about 60 districts have migrated from the use of a microscope to detect TB to the more accurate GeneXpert machines, a thing that has made Uganda to be one of the few countries in Africa that knows it’s TB prevalence figures.

The US has donated 20 GeneXpert machines to the country in the last four years.

****

editor@independent.co.ug