{"id":20818,"date":"2013-02-01T11:37:27","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T11:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/?p=20818"},"modified":"2013-02-07T08:14:13","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T08:14:13","slug":"us-fund-additional-11million-for-xpert-tb-diagnostics-in-14-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/20818","title":{"rendered":"US fund additional $11 million for Xpert TB diagnostics in 14 countries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>On 4 December 2012, the United States President&#8217;s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) announced an additional $11 million to provide up to 150 Xpert MTB\/RIF instruments and 450,000 test cartridges in 14 high-burden countries across sub-Saharan Africa and in Burma.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Cepheid Xpert MTB\/RIF assay is a new fully automated molecular diagnostic test for tuberculosis disease (TB). It can detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA and mutations associated with rifampicin resistance directly from sputum specimens in less than 2 hours. The assay is more sensitive for detecting TB than sputum-smear microscopy with similar accuracy as culture on solid media. The ability of the Xpert assay to detect smear-negative TB provides a significant advantage over smear microscopy, especially for persons with TB who are also HIV-infected.<\/p>\n<p>These additional resources bring PEPFAR&#8217;s investments to-date in Xpert MTB\/RIF to more than 275 instruments in high-burden countries. Additionally, in August 2012, PEPFAR and USAID partnered with UNITAID and the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation in an innovative public-private partnership to reduce the cost of Xpert MTB\/RIF cartridges by 40% (from $16.86 to $9.98). This partnership also significantly accelerates access to this cutting-edge technology.<\/p>\n<p>Source:<\/p>\n<p>PEPFAR press release. United States Government Announces $11 Million in Additional Support for Rapid TB Test in 14 Countries. 4 December 2012.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pepfar.gov\/press\/releases\/2012\/201507.htm\">http:\/\/www.pepfar.gov\/press\/releases\/2012\/201507.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 4 December 2012, the United States President&#8217;s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) announced an additional $11 million to provide up to 150 Xpert MTB\/RIF instruments and 450,000 test cartridges in 14 high-burden countries across sub-Saharan Africa and in &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tb-coinfection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}