Anti-TB Drug Resistance Survey is Officially Launched

The Ethiopian Public Health Institute’s (EPHI) National TB Reference Laboratory launched the Anti-TB Drug Resistance Survey project in Ethiopia for the year 2017/18 on July 3, 2017.
The Anti-TB drug resistance survey will be conducted at randomly selected sites across the nation to assess the extent of drug resistant tuberculosis in the country and provide necessary information for the national TB Control Program to design appropriate strategies to prevent and control drug resistant tuberculosis in Ethiopia.

Dr. Ebba Abate, Director General of EPHI indicated that the proposed survey is designed based on World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation to determine the magnitude and patter of anti TB drug resistance in Ethiopia.
“The information going to be generated from this survey is crucial to identify the level of disease burden, evaluate the performance of the TB control program and to point out appropriate treatment strategy to treat mycobacterial strain circulating in the country,” added the Director General.
Dr. Ebba also said that EPHI has developed adequate capacity to conduct the survey with optimal quality of standards. And the Institute has technically sufficient experts, both senior and young staffs. The Institute’s laboratory is also at appropriate standard to run the survey.
Health professionals from the survey sites, representatives of Center for Disease Control (CDC) and WHO have participated on the launching workshop.