Zimbabwe: GeneXpert makes TB testing faster, effective
It takes only 2 hours to have a test completed
Murambinda Mission Hospital has made strides in providing quality health care as an integrated health centre. Three years ago it was reported that patients were sleeping at the hospital to access health services.
This was mainly the case with HIV positive patients as they strove to have their CD4 counts done on time. Today the hospital no longer has long winding queues, thanks to the work and partnership it has with MSF Belgium which has provided some support staff and state-of-the-art machines.
The testing of TB in immuno suppressed people is usually difficult as some people fail to provide quality sputum samples. This was further complicated by the cost and long diagnostic time that TB tests usually took.
A new machine, the GeneXpert makes TB diagnostic fast and simpler for active TB and is now in use at Murambinda hospital. It takes only 2 hours to have a test completed and four samples are tested at a time meaning 16 samples go through in each day.
The standard test for TB is sputum under the microscope but with the GeneXpert, genes of TB on the sputum, which is resistant to rifampicin is detected. Rifampicin is the main drug used in treating TB.
Multi-drug resistant TB can be detected using the machine.
Presently the Buhera district has one minor with MDRTB and is under treatment. MSF-Belgium has also funded the rehabilitation of the outpatients department at Murambinda hospital.
"We constructed a new waiting area for expecting mothers and this has made life bearable for the mothers," said James Mutharia, who is the project co-ordinator for MSF-Belgium.
The organisation also constructed a stabilisation centre where undernourished children are fed during the day and leave for their homes at the end of the day.
"We handed over the centre to the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare in 2010. We had run it from 2006," said Mutharia.
The Buhera district with a population of 232 400 now has 23 clinics, which all dispenses ART.
"These facilities existed all we did was come and rehabilitate the sanitation in some of them. We have mobile support staff that visits the clinics and all these now are decentralised ART centres which means Murambinda Hospital has decongested," said Mutharia.
Decentralisation has helped people to access services at their nearest clinics. Usually some people in the past defaulted due to lack of bus fare but today that is a thing of the past.
MSF-Belgium has also constructed a pharmacy at the Birchenough Bridge Clinic and installed another GeneXpert machine there.
"All the clinics have radio communications and we service and maintain these on behalf of our partners," he said.
Awareness of HIV in the region is at a scaled up level, as the community has accepted positive living. As of June 2011, 17 584 patients were on active ART in the district, showing that the awareness campaigns had paid off.
allAfrica.com
