Press Release

President Inaugurates Mobile Laboratory in Mbeya

U.S. a key supporter of effort to bring health services into rural areas

October 30, 2009

President Kikwete inaugurated a Mobile Diagnostic Laboratory today, which will support the introduction of collaborative TB/HIV co-diagnosis at the Ilembo Health Center in Mbeya Rural District. The Mobile Diagnostic Laboratory is a partnership between the Mbeya Medical Research Program, the American people, and the Mbeya Medical Office, and will help to increase access to collaborative TB/HIV care in rural areas of Mbeya Region.

The U.S. Department of Defense / Walter Reed Program-Tanzania supports HIV diagnosis and staging as a part of this collaboration. Together with mobilization and awareness campaigns, the health providers will be able to diagnose and stage TB and HIV cases in a relatively short period of time. Patients will therefore be able to receive their treatment at health centers and dispensaries in the rural areas. By bringing these services closer to where people live, the laboratory will rapidly improve access to care and treatment and have a positive impact on early diagnosis and compliance with treatment. In addition, health care professionals at remote health facilities will benefit from on-the-job training and also receive regular supportive supervision visits.

President Kikwete also inaugurated a surgical theatre at Ilembo Health Center funded by the Mbeya District Council. This year the HIV/AIDS care and treatment center at the Ilembo Health Center started to provide an Anti-Retro Viral treatment to HIV patients with funding from President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The American people have been supporting both military and civilian counterpart organizations in Tanzania to fight HIV/AIDS through PEPFAR since 2004. The U.S.-funded program to combat HIV/AIDS was developed with local partners in the Southern Highlands, including the regions of Mbeya, Rukwa and Ruvuma, and with the Tanzanian Peoples Defense Forces. The civilian program is conducted in collaboration with the Mbeya Referral Hospital and the Mbeya, Rukwa and Ruvuma Regional Medical Offices in close coordination with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

The Walter Reed Program-Tanzania is an American program through the U.S. Department of Defense program that plays a key role in the global effort to advance research for an HIV vaccine in Tanzania. Initiated by Congress in 1986, the program aims to protect service personnel and serve the global community by reducing the risk of HIV infection. More than 20 years later, the U.S. Military‘s HIV Research Program has become a leader in international HIV vaccine development efforts, with five research sites in Africa and Asia.

In addition to working to develop a safe, globally effective HIV vaccine, the program also provides prevention, care and treatment services in each of the communities in which research is conducted.