This follows a successful implementation
of the technology, named SUA-APOPO Rodent -- to sniff out and diagnose
the disease, proving “effective and faster than conventional diagnostic
methods’’ in Tanzania and Mozambique.
A scientist and trainer, Ms Mariam Juma,
told reporters at the 40th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair
(DITF) in the city yesterday that the two countries are among African
countries with higher rate of TB cases.
“The plan is underway and this will
include opening up a centre in Dar es Salaam where there are more cases
of TB reported in the country,” she told the ‘Daily News’.
According to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), Tanzania is among the 22 high-burden countries
suffering from the TB bacterial infection. New cases of TB remained
relatively higher last year at 781,936 people up from 83,227 detected in
2014.
“The increase in new cases results to
mass awareness campaign conducted by local and international
organisations and with the government,” an official in the Ministry of
Health clarified to the ‘Daily News’.
However, Ms Juma was of the view that
the increase in the number of new cases follows last year’s campaign
launched by SUA and the ministry to diagnose prisons and industry
workers. “Most Tanzanians are less willing to examine their health
status until otherwise someone is ill,” she said.
We’re now moving to sensitize the public
to examine their health status and we will be visiting various
manufacturing and processing industries,” she emphasized.Acknowledging
the work of African poached giant rats, SUA scientists and lecturer Pius
Mhapuly said the SUA-APOPO technology is widely known for detecting
bombs and now is proving effective in the area of health. “The research
is an ongoing exercise,” he said, “and we expect it would help save more
lives”.
He defended the new technology, saying
it had helped to provide positive results from a sample of negative
sputum provided from a number of research centres. Mr Mhapuly explained
that the trained rats learn to recognise the presence of TB in samples
of sputum, coughed up from the patient’s lower airways. For testing, he
explained that a rat has to go through a row of 10 sputum samples.
When it detects any TB strain, the rat
hovers over the sample for at least three seconds. One rat can diagnose
100 samples in less than 15 minutes while the same sample can take as
longer as two days in conventional methods, Mr Mhapuly said.
TB is the leading cause of death after
HIV from infectious diseases and the WHO statistics shows around the
world, there are about nine million new cases and two million deaths
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