In the nearest possible future, Tuberculosis will be a thing of the past in Ethiopia.

Since the turn of the new century, the United State through it’s USAID program has been working closely with the Government of Ethiopia in battling tuberculosis (TB) in the country. As a result of this partnership, over 2million cases have been detected and treated in the past 20 years since the beginning of the partnership. This has helped reduce fatal cases resulting from TB by over 70 percent.

The agreement which will see the continuous partnership between both countries in fighting TB was signed by the Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission, Sean Jones and The Ethiopian State Minister of Health, Dr Lia Tadesse. Under the partnership, Ethiopia will be one of 30 focus countries under USAID’s new Global Accelerator to End TB initiative.

The Global Accelerator to End TB is a new model that USAID is employing in order to leverage greater resources from partner countries, private sector partners, and other local organizations in order to meet the UN target of treating 40 million people worldwide by 2022. The Accelerator will focus on locally generated solutions that tailor USAID’s TB response to patients and communities in order to better address their diagnosis, treatment and prevention needs.

Culled from allafrica.com