- Dr. Huot Chan Yuda (HOOT CHAN YUDA), Director of CENAT
- Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
It is a pleasure to be here with you today as a partner in the fight against tuberculosis in Cambodia. By supporting this important National Assessment of TB Diagnostic Networks and through our other USAID funded TB activities, we hope to underscore USAID’s commitment to assisting the National TB Control Program to end TB in Cambodia.
Tuberculosis is a top priority for the US Government. USAID's model to fight TB is known as the Global Accelerator to End Tuberculosis.
Through this approach, USAID is bringing together local governments, civil society, and the private sector to accelerate national progress towards the global targets for TB. To ensure the Accelerator’s effectiveness in reaching global and national level targets, USAID has heavily invested in improving the diagnostic capacity of host countries.
Much progress has been made in fighting TB in the last two decades, both globally and here in Cambodia.
I want to congratulate the Ministry of Health and the National TB Program for that success.
However, despite great achievements, there are still an estimated 16,000 undetected TB cases in Cambodia.
Finding these missing cases demands a great deal of resources, innovation, and sustained commitment.
The U.S. Government stands by you as a proud committed partner in this endeavor and we believe that through partnership, we can Stop TB.
USAID activities in Cambodia help strengthen policy development, improve M&E, and build state-of-the-art diagnosis and digital connectivity capabilities. These investments “accelerate” case finding, implement active case finding activities, and improve early detection and treatment for TB.
Today, we will review and finalize the report of the National TB Diagnostic Network Assessment so that all of us are aware of the findings, challenges, and recommendations that have resulted from this work.
We will discuss the report and share questions, concerns or even express objections, all with the goal of improving TB laboratory networks to deliver timely and accurate results to patients and improve TB case detection.
From this starting point, we can work together to develop short and medium-term interventions to improve access, capacity, and quality of the TB diagnostic network which will increase detection of TB and MDR-TB.
I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together this year. In addition, this report will be a timely reference resource for the Global Fund grant application that will be submitted in the coming months.
In closing, I want to recognize and thank the National TB Program taking the lead to finalize the report.
Also, many thanks to TB Provincial and Operational District Supervisors and partners who have participated and made this assessment successfully. Finally, I want to recognize CENAT for their commitment, leadership, and successes in ending TB in Cambodia.
I wish you all a successful meeting.
Thank you!
Original source can be found here.
