 A suspected TB patient comes to TASO in Kampala to give a sputum sample - © Gary Hampton
Infectious tuberculosis is the first step in tuberculosis control, and the most appropriate way to do this is to examine sputum smears under a microscope to detect acid-fast bacilli (AFB).
Standardised techniques for smear microscopy have been available for many years, but the low detection rate of the most infectious smear-positive tuberculosis cases is recognised today as one of the primary obstacles to a successful worldwide TB control strategy. With the growing spread of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, laboratories are under increasing pressure to be able to identify these bacilli by drug susceptibility testing. High- quality results help doctors to diagnose their patients’ tuberculosis in a timely way and select effective treatment regimens: first-line drugs in most cases, but second-line drugs for multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis.
To meet these challenges, The Union has been running a Laboratory Strengthening programme since 2004. The three components of the programme are technical assistance, education and publications and operational research. The goal of the programme is to strengthen national laboratory networks and improve their performance. Activities are conducted or coordinated mainly from the Mycobacteriology Unit of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, where most of The Union laboratory staff are based.
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Tuberculosis 
