Ethiopia Receives $1mln worth TB Testing Machines from U.S.

ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia has received a donation of 46 cutting-edge tuberculosis (TB) testing machines from the United states on Wednesday.

The machines, which USAid estimates to be worth $1 million, will help the government’s effort to reduce the time it takes to diagnose TB across the country from two days to two hours.

The GeneXpert Tuberculosis Diagnostic Machines were handed over by the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, Geeta Pasi, to Minister of Health, Dr. Lia Tadesse, at the Ethiopian Pharmaceuticals Supply Agency Compound.
Dr. Lia has said he was “very grateful” for the latest donation.

“Our long-standing partnership with US AID and other USG mechanisms in our TB programming will be further strengthened to jointly address the key challenges in our TB program up to its elimination,” she added.

Although treatable and preventable, TB currently kills 24,000 people per year in Ethiopia, which amounts to nearly 3 deaths every hour.

 

Featured Image: Dr. Lia and U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, Geeta Pasi, visiting the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Agency (EPSA) on September 8, 2021.