Zimbabwean Nurse Wins Prize For Groundbreaking HIV/TB Research

Zimbabwean nurse Chenai Mathabire was awarded an HIV/TB Research Prize at this year’s International Aids Society Conference in Paris. This came after she produced scientific evidence that an easy-to-use tuberculosis test can be rolled out as a diagnostic tool in community healthcare clinics.

 
The research was conducted in Lawai and Mozambique. The study is based on the efficacy of a TB test which quickly detects tuberculosis in patients living with advanced HIV.

The Doctors Without Borders nurse says the test will accelerate the pace at which medicine is dispensed to needy patients. She said that despite ARVs there is still need to take care of patients with HIV.

Doctors Without Borders will use the study to persuade health ministries in countries with a high HIV/TB burden to utilise the device within its primary healthcare centres and hospitals.