Kenya: Major Price Cut for Rapid TB Test
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
The cost of a highly accurate, rapid diagnostic test for tuberculosis (TB) has been reduced by 40 percent under a new agreement between the US government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the health financing mechanism, UNITAID.
GeneXpert, recommended by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) in December 2010, provides a two-hour diagnosis of TB, the TB/HIV co-infection, and drug-resistant TB.
“To date, the high unit cost of Xpert MTB/RIF cartridges… has proven a barrier to their introduction and widespread use in low- and middle-income countries. The new agreement will immediately reduce the cost of cartridges used to diagnose TB by more than 40 percent,” UNITAID said in a statement on 6 August.
Source: All Africa (link opens in a new window)
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