The U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia announced Tuesday the donation of 156 cutting-edge tuberculosis (TB) testing machines worth $3 million to the people of Ethiopia through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
These new machines reduce the time it takes to diagnose TB from six weeks to two hours.
Handing over the machines to Dereje Duguma (MD), Ethiopia’s Health State Minister, at the ALERT Hospital in Addis Ababa, USAID Mission Director Scott Hocklander said: “USAID is Ethiopia’s largest bilateral health donor and is investing more than $154 million every year to strengthen Ethiopia’s national health system across the country.”
Over the past two decades, USAID has partnered with the MoH and other stakeholders to diagnose every person with TB, cure those who need treatment, prevent the spread of new infections, and generate evidence and rapid uptake of new technologies and medicines to move Ethiopians towards eliminating TB, the Embassy added.
It described the donation of the 156 TB testing machines is part of USAID’s commitment to supporting the people of Ethiopia to successfully treat TB cases nationwide. Today’s donation brings the total to 659 machines nationwide.
TB is the leading infectious disease in Ethiopia and globally, claiming the lives of over 21,000 Ethiopians annually – more than HIV and malaria combined. That is equivalent to 60 deaths every day.
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