Researchers in Philippines develop machine to quickly detect drug-resistant TB

Nov 15 2011

In this post in the Global Post's "Global Pulse" blog, journalist John Donnelly reports on how a machine developed by researchers at the TB Laboratory at the Lung Center of the Philippines "that can detect multi-drug resistant [tuberculosis (MDR-TB)] in record time may revolutionize TB treatment." According to the blog, the GeneXpert, dubbed by researchers as the "espresso maker," grew out of collaboration among partners put together by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics in Geneva and "can detect [MDR-TB] in two hours instead of the old way of growing cultures that took two months."

"With financial help from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, the Philippines has purchased 20 GeneXpert machines and has begun to distribute them to provinces around the country," the blog states. Donnelly and photographer Riccardo Venturi visited the lab as the first stop in a three-country tour, during which the pair, acting independently, "met with scientists, doctors and patients to explore the scope of the struggle to fight MDR-TB," Donnelly writes (11/13).