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U.S. Government Renovates Zambian Tropical Disease Research Center in Ndola

Deputy Health Minister Kapembwa Simbao and U.S. Ambassador Martin Brennan today officially opened the newly refurbished Regional Tuberculosis (TB) reference laboratory at the Tropical Disease Research Center in Ndola (TDRC).

The structure has been renovated at a cost of US$130,000 with funds from the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Emergency Plan).

In addition to the new structural renovation, the United States Government (USG) provided "state of the art equipment" such as the fluorescent microscopy and biological safety cabinets for TB culture and drug susceptibility testing. The renovation project was managed by the U.S. Embassy's office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The new equipment will give TDRC the capacity to provide rapid and sensitive techniques for TB diagnosis, as well as the ability to monitor and confirm the progress of patient treatment regimens prescribed in the Direct Observed Treatment Short Course Therapy program.

Further support to TDRC will include training of staff using additional Emergency Plan funds. The refurbished laboratory will also augment capacity for TB care and treatment laboratory support provided by the National TB Reference (Chest Diseases) Laboratory in Lusaka, which is also supported by the USG through the Emergency Plan.

Although TDRC serves primarily as a research center, this new laboratory will serve as a public health referral center for TB cases, which may be difficult to diagnose due to HIV/AIDS and other immune comromising diseases. These services will be for clinics on the Copperbelt and other provinces in the northern regions of the country.

The United States Government, through CDC, has been a long-standing partner of TDRC and has supported other public health laboratory activities over the years. These include dysentry and cholera from contaminated water, syndromic management of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS sentinel surveiilance.