This week, Centre for Health Solutions – Kenya through its USAID-funded Tuberculosis Accelerated Response and Care (TB ARC II) activity collaborated with the Ministry of Health’s National TB Program to train County Medical Laboratory Coordinators (CMLCs) from Kenya’s 47 counties on the use of Truenat assay for TB testing (a WHO-approved TB diagnostic tool). This is part of the newly awarded grant to CHS to help scale up the introduction of new WHO-approved TB molecular diagnostic tools.
The trained CMLCs are expected to support the rollout of the Truenat testing by coordinating implementation at the county level, site support supervision and mentorships, commodity management, enrolment, and participation in Proficiency Testing (PT) and feedback submission.
Truenat assay will complement the GeneXpert Mycobacterium tuberculosis/resistance to rifampicin and ultra assay that has been in use in the country for TB diagnostic network for the last 10 years.
Truenat benefits include:
- It is designed for operation in peripheral laboratories with minimal infrastructure and minimally trained lab technicians
- It is battery- powered and uses room-temperature stable reagents
- It generates results for TB in one hour and RIF resistance in one additional hour
Truenat assay is one of the diagnostic tools being supported through the Introducing New Tools Project (iNTP) supported by the USAID Global and Stop TB Partnership. The main objective for the iNTP is to help scale up the introduction of new WHO-approved TB molecular diagnostic tools to help increase access to molecular diagnostic tools in Kenya and TB drug susceptibility testing surveillance and support the rollout of treatment and digital health tools to strengthen TB care in high burden countries. CHS is the lead implementer of iNTP in Kenya.
