National Tuberculosis (TB) Research Conference officially opened in Addis Ababa on March 21, 2024, with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in attendance.
Organized by the Ministry of Health and partners, the event ran until March 24th, culminating with the celebration of World TB Day. Unique to this year were outdoor activities to educate the public that included a police march, a public sport activity between Addis Ababa Municipality and EPHI staff, social and mainstream media public awareness campaigns, and graduation of TB patients that completed an income generating capacity building activity.
USAID made three funding announcements at the conference. Mission Director (MD) Scott Hocklander shared the news that Ethiopia is one of a limited number of countries that will benefit from the new “USAID Global Accelerator Plus Initiative,” to help end TB by 2030. As part of this initiative, Ethiopia will receive an additional $6 million in 2024 to fight TB.
The Government of Ethiopia has committed to allocating an additional $6 million to match USAID’s contribution. Second, MD Hocklander informed the audience that the USAID TB Local Organizations Network (TB LON) Activity launched on Sunday, March 24, 2024 to support the TB program in Afar, Benshangul Gumz, Gambella, and Somali. In addition, USAID manages a $1 million seed fund that will expand access to testing for TB.
USAID has invested nearly $350 million over the last 25 years to support Ethiopia’s TB program. The mission procured nearly 350 cutting-edge rapid TB diagnostic GeneXpert machines; constructed 16 multidrug resistant TB treatment centers and 15 reference laboratories, procured thousands of microscopes, trained tens of thousands of health workers, and reached millions of Ethiopians with different TB and multidrug resistant TB services.
On March 24, 2024, USAID supported the celebration of World TB Day. Various activities took place to mark the event, including speeches from government and development partners, a TB Awareness Creation Walk, and testimonials from TB survivors. USAID Deputy Health Office Director Karen Koprince delivered remarks and reaffirmed the U.S Government’s commitment to continue supporting the Ethiopian people and government to end TB by 2030.
2024 marks an important milestone in the relationship between the people of the United States and the people of Ethiopia. It was 120 years ago that the two countries established formal diplomatic ties and 60 years later that USAID was established in Ethiopia. USAID has continued to support Ethiopia’s efforts to end TB.