Moving an Exciting New TB Diagnostic From Policy to Practice

By Javid Syed

Summer 2011

On December 8, 2010 the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed the use of the new Xpert® MTB/RIF test as the initial test offered to people suspected of having HIV-associated TB or multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB. The test, developed by Cepheid Inc., Foundation for Innovative and New Diagnostics (FIND), and University of Dentistry and Medicine New Jersey (UNDMJ), is highly accurate and can diagnose TB and MDR-TB in two hours. It represents a major advance over microscopy, which has been the primary method of diagnosing TB for the last 125 years. In 2010, by using microscopy, the world was only able to detect 63% of TB cases. The rate of MDR-TB case detection was far worse: an abysmally low 12%.

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