Botswana acquires hi-tech TB detection tool

Patricia Edwin | Wednesday September 10, 2014 12:47

Anikie Mathoma from the TB/HIV Division at Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Botswana said that the new cutting edge diagnostic tool is being studied at clinics in the country.

It is hoped that the tool will help more people to be treated faster than before.

Mathoma said that TB remains a leading killer of People Living With HIV (PLHIV) in Botswana.

“In 2012 as many as 63 percent of TB patients in Botswana were co-infected with HIV and Botswana faces a growing threat of Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB, a disease that is much more difficult to diagnose and successfully treat,” she said.  She said that though other methods can detect drug resistance, it could take weeks or months to receive results.

“Until recently, health providers routinely relied on smear microscopy, a diagnostic tool developed more than 100 years ago, to detect TB in the sputum of patients but this method can miss many TB cases especially among PLHIV and does not detect drug resistance,” she stated.

“Xpert MTB/RIF may enable patients to be treated more quickly and ultimately save more lives,” said Mathomo.   She said that Xpert machines have been delivered to some clinics in the country.

The United States government and the Botswana Ministry of Health have partnered to embark on an evaluation called Xpert Package Rollout Evaluation Study (XPRES) of the 13 Xpert devices used in Botswana.

 She said that the study’s objectives are to compare the sensitivity of the new Xpert diagnostic tool versus the older smear microscopy-based diagnostic tool when providing TB screening for PLHIV and also evaluate the impact of Xpert on morality rates of patients newly enrolled in Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART).

Mathomo said that Xpert is a molecular test that uses DNA probe in a sealed test kit to detect TB in sputum with greater sensitivity than traditional tests.

It detects resistance to Rifampicin (one of the most effective first line drugs) much more quickly.

“The test can be performed simply and safely by minimally trained staff with results available in approximately two hours as compared to the days or weeks it took before,” she said.