Unitaid Provides TB Test for RI

Jakarta Antara Bali) - UNITAID has invested US$ 25.9 million to purchase over 220 GeneXpert® machines and 1.4 million test cartridges for 21 countries in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia including Indonesia.

Co-ordinated by WHO and the Stop TB Partnership, this project - known as TBXpert- is estimated to save an additional 62,000 lives, Geneva-based UNITAID said in press statement on Thursday.

UNITAID and the World Health Organization (WHO) have started the largest roll-out of GeneXpert®, state-of-the-art test machines for tuberculosis (TB) that shorten the time to diagnose drug-resistant strains of TB from weeks to only a few hours.

By allowing health workers to quickly diagnose drug resistant TB and put patients immediately on treatment, GeneXpert® devices can help halt the spread of this deadly form of the airborne disease.

Until recently, the high cost of GeneXpert® TB cartridges was a barrier to the test's introduction in low- and middle-income countries.

In addition to Indonesia, the other recipients are Bangladesh, Belarus, Cambodia, Congo, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Moldova, Swaziland, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam.

"Thanks to an agreement UNITAID finalized a year ago with the device's manufacturer Cepheid, 145 countries - including all 21 in the TBXpert Project - are now benefitting from a 40% price reduction on cartridges," the statement said. (*/DWA)