Advocates Call on Kenyan Government to Fast Track Implementation of New TB Diagnostic Tools

11 December 2017

TB advocates urge the Kenyan government to overcome regulatory barriers to efficiently implement new TB and HIV diagnostic tools.

On 11 December 2017, TB advocates sent an open letter to Dr. Cleopa Mailu, the Cabinet Secretary of the Kenyan Ministry of Health, urging the government to fast track implementation of all World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed TB and HIV diagnostic tools in Kenya.

“While the KMLTTB [Kenya Medical Laboratory Technicians & Technologists Board] continues to enforce unwarranted barriers to implementing new, validated, and WHO-endorsed diagnostic tools, patient care is delayed resulting in unnecessary deaths and suffering.”

The signatories requested that the government simplify and make publicly available policy detailing the registration requirements of new diagnostic tools, and declared their readiness to “provide further input into the development of a simple, robust and patient centric diagnostic registration policy.”