Since 2012, with planning, technical and financial support from USAID, Vietnam’s National TB Program (NTP) has successfully rolled out the use of rapid TB diagnosis testing through the GeneXpert platform. In July 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended integrating GeneXpert for multi-disease testing. Last week, USAID’s Challenge TB activity brought together hundreds of health officials from NTP and Vietnam Administration for HIV/AIDS Control (VAAC) to discuss the implementation of WHO’s recommendation of using the GeneXpert platform for TB and HIV tests. The workshop was attended by representatives from 21 provinces with the highest TB-HIV burden. In his remarks, USAID/Vietnam’s Deputy Mission Director Craig Hart highlighted that using GeneXpert for HIV viral load tests not only accelerates testing through existing laboratories, but also integrates HIV and TB care. So What? As USAID works with the Vietnamese Government to effectively address public health threats, technology transfer and increasing host capacity are key enablers.
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