Faster TB detection welcome news to patients and hospital staff |31 October 2012

One such machine was handed over to the Seychelles Hospital yesterday and it was public health commissioner, Dr Jude Gédéon, who accepted it from World Health Organisation (WHO) liaison officer for Seychelles Dr Cornelia Atsyor.

The hand-over ceremony was held at the Sheikh Khalifa diagnostic centre in the presence of the director of clinical laboratories Dr Prosper Kinabo, senior laboratory technologist Leon Biscornet and other lab and hospital staff.

Dr Atsyor said the new technology called Xpert MTB/RIF uses fewer infrastructure and human resources compared to older methods.

This gives “higher sensitivity for case detection especially in patients with dual infection of HIV and TB,” she said.

The technology, available to many countries now, including Seychelles, is a collaboration of several partners including but not limited to the WHO, Global Laboratory Initiative (GLI), TB REACH, the Expand TB Projects, and the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM).

Dr Gédéon said now patients will have less time to wait for their results and the new technology ensures that there is now a reduced risk in TB transmission during diagnosis.

He added that the new equipment will help reduce the financial pressure on the hospital.
“We are looking forward to further collaborations with the WHO,” he said.

So far, both clinical and public health staff have received online training for the new diagnosis machine.

More than 22 countries have received the equipment and supplies expected to support early and accurate TB detection.