TB lab nears completion

advanced stage with Harare city health officials optimistic it would be completed soon.
Director of health services in the city, Dr Stanley Mungofa said construction of the tuberculosis diagnostic centre was made possible with funding under the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria Round five.

A total of US$160 000 under round five of funding was set aside for the project.
“Patients suspected of suffering from tuberculosis in Harare are referred to Beatrice hospital which until recently was the only centre in the Metropolitan area that conducts sputum testing for TB,” said Dr Mungofa.

However, the current laboratory at the hospital has become too small to cater for the large number of samples that were coming through per day for testing because of HIV and Aids.
“This is a welcome development. Our old lab was no longer conducive for the amount of work that is carried out here on a daily basis.
“We cater for at least 300 patients per day since we are the only TB testing centre here in the capital.

“We have also set up some satellite labs across the capital just to ease congestion at Beatrice hospital, so we expect the new lab to help us improve on service delivery,” said Dr Mungofa.
The new laboratory which will be fitted with state-of-the-art equipment is expected to improve service delivery at the hospital and TB patients will be able to commence medication as soon as diagnosis confirms the presence of bacteria that causes the disease.

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Recently, Government endorsed a new TB testing method but it is still not widely used due to the high costs of the testing equipment.
Both government and public institutions are still heavily depending on sputum testing methods for the diagnosis of TB.

Zimbabwe remains one of the 22 most TB-burdened countries in the world.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, TB cases recorded in 2010 were 10 000 more compared to those recorded in 2007.
In 2010, about 47 000 cases of TB were notified compared to 37 000 cases in 2007.