Senior United Nations officials today praised Rwanda for successfully integrating the treatment of patients suffering from HIV and tuberculosis after witnessing first-hand the delivery of health services in the African nation."It is gratifying to be at this clinic, which has intensified TB case finding in people living with HIV through TB screening and transferring confirmed cases to a TB clinic," said the Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Stop TB Jorge Sampaio, referring to a visit to the Socio-Medical Centre in Biryogo.
"In addition patients who enrol at the health centre with tuberculosis are also tested for HIV and those found to be HIV-positive are given integrated care and support," noted Dr. Sampaio, adding that the programme "reflects Rwanda's impressive progress nationwide on coordinating TB and HIV services."
The head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) spotlighted the progress Rwanda has made in easing the impact of TB and HIV co-infection through better collaboration and the use of innovative diagnostic technology.
"I am pleased to see that Rwanda is leading Africa and the world in taking an integrated approach to dealing with the interlinked epidemics of TB and HIV," said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé.
"Rwanda's bold leadership is achieving impressive results that show the rest of Africa what can be achieved," said Mr. Sidibé.
On a later visit to Rwanda's National Reference Laboratory in Kigali, Dr. Sampaio and Mr. Sidibé congratulated staff and recognized their critical role in reducing deaths from TB among people living with HIV, while underscoring the need for much greater investment in strengthening laboratory services not least for a faster, simpler and more accurate TB test.
TB diagnosis requires visualization under a microscope of the bacteria, obtained via sputum samples, which cause the disease. But few bacteria are present in the coughed-up phlegm of many HIV sufferers, leading to a missed diagnosis in many cases.
The sensitivity of a TB diagnosis can be improved by incubating the samples to multiply the TB bacteria which can take weeks or months to grow using conventional methods. In an effort to increase speed and accuracy of TB diagnosis, fast liquid culture (MGIT) is slated to be rolled out soon in Rwanda. The National Reference Laboratory is also studying more efficient microscopes and staining techniques to shorten the time-lag in TB diagnosis.
Earlier this week, Mr. Sidibé addressed the 59th session of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Regional Committee for Africa in Kigali, where he stressed the urgent need stop new HIV infections and called for a sea-change approach to prevent sexual transmission of HIV. "Prevention must become our watchword, the banner we raise in this critical stage of the response."
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