Roche, through its Global Access Program, and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are joining forces to build and strengthen diagnostic capacity and pandemic preparedness in low-and middle-income countries fighting against HIV and tuberculosis (TB), according to a news release.
About 2 billion people worldwide are estimated to be infected with tuberculosis, with 95% of TB deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Of more than 37 million people living with HIV globally, over 6 million people are undiagnosed. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many HIV and TB programs, resulting in HIV testing rates falling by 22% and an estimated additional 100 000 deaths from tuberculosis in LMICs in 2020.
Roche and the Global Fund have joined forces to improve the diagnosis of HIV and TB in LMICs by building local capacity to tackle fundamental infrastructure challenges for generating and delivering diagnostic results and managing healthcare waste.
This includes building effective processes to collect, transport, test samples and return the results to patients for timely clinical interventions, as well as addressing challenges arising from a lack of network infrastructure, workforce capacity, access to roads, and IT systems. The partnership will also include novel approaches to reduce the environmental and economic burden of healthcare waste generated during the testing process itself and the disposal of instruments and medical devices at the end of its/their useful life.
“Getting people to test for HIV and TB is fundamental to containing transmission and enrolling people on treatment, which are crucial steps to saving lives and ending these diseases as public health threats,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund.
Through collaboration with the Global Fund, Ministries of Health, and country-based partners, Roche will first support assessments and implementation of new technologies and knowledge transfer in 2 to 3 pilot countries, with the ambition to scale up and expand support in 10 countries over the next five years.
