Press Releases
U.S. Government Partners with Government of Tanzania and Columbia University to Inaugurate New HIV Laboratory facility
November 21, 2007
Mwanza: Today marked the official inauguration of the Early HIV Infant Diagnosis (EID) Laboratory at Bugando Medical Center in Mwanza. This laboratory is the first in Tanzania that will be able to detect HIV infection in children as young as four weeks of age. The new EID laboratory will enable earlier diagnosis through a process which involves testing a drop of an infant’s blood collected through a prick of an infant’s heel onto a filter paper (called a dried blood spot or DBS).
Prior to the start of this new testing, it has not been possible to know whether a child was infected with HIV until he or she was 18 months of age. By then, many children would have died from AIDS without treatment. Now, infants will be able to be diagnosed earlier and get treatment sooner.
The laboratory was developed through technical and financial support provided to Bugando by the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Program of Columbia University (ICAP-CU), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW) and with support from the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC). In all, Bugando Medical Center has received over $200,000 support from ICAP including procurement of the laboratory equipment and reagents, supplies, training and ongoing technical assistance for Quality Assurance and quality control. Additional support is provided to Bugando from the AIDSRelief organization to assist in HIV treatment.
According to Dr. Stefan Wiktor, CDC Country Director, “The launch of this laboratory represents a major advance in addressing pediatric AIDS and will help ensure that infants receive appropriate HIV care and Antiretroviral Therapy.” The new diagnosis method will allow parents to get answers faster and begin planning for the future. “Now parents will know if their child has HIV as early as 4 weeks of age and they will be able to take them to HIV treatment centers for treatment”, Dr. Wiktor added.
The laboratory began offering services in October 2006 as part of a pilot project in three health facilities in Mwanza. To date over 1300 infants have received early HIV testing at Bugando. Today, over 35 health facilities in 6 regions are accessing the lab services and the laboratory will be able to process samples from across the country.
The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare is calling upon the people of Lake Zone and Tanzania in general to make fully use of these services and to spread the word to fellow Tanzanians that these services are now available. The Ministery of Health and Social Welfare has said that the laboratory is ready to accepts samples from beyond Mwanza region and that they are looking forward to the inauguration of three other laboratories that will soon be functioning through the collaboration between the Ministry and the US Government and other partners.
On her part, the ICAP-CU Country Director, Amy Cunningham said, ‘I am delighted to see this facility open its doors to services to all Tanzanians.’ According to Ms Cunningham, by 2009 ICAP-CU expected to support over 150 facilities with services to preventi the transmission of HIV from mother-to-child and over 60 facilities (including 35 primary health centers) for AIDS treatment.
Since its inception in 2003, PEPFAR has contributed over $500 million in Tanzania towards combating the dreaded scourge of HIV/AIDS. This fiscal year, the United States Government expects to increase PEPFAR assistance by an additional $303 million. This $200,000 (224 million Tanzanian shilling) Bugando Medical Center project from the American people is part of overall U.S. Government direct and multilateral assistance to Tanzania of more than half a billion U.S. Dollars (over 725 billion Tanzanian shillings) in fiscal year 2008.