Thursday, March 20, 2014 - 08:00 to 09:15
Palais des Nations

11:00am – 12:00pm (by invitation only): In the lead up to World TB Day, the press briefing will report on the results of the EXPAND-TB project, with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), UNITAID, FIND and GDF. The EXPAND-TB (Expanding Access to New Diagnostics for TB) project was initiated in 2009 to accelerate access to diagnostics for patients at risk of MDR-TB in 27 low- and middle-income countries. The project is funded by UNITAID and is collaboration between WHO, the Stop TB Partnership’s Global Laboratory Initiative (GLI) and Global Drug Facility (GDF), and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND). The overall goal of the five-year project is to improve capacity to diagnose MDR-TB in upgraded laboratory services, in order to help eliminate the huge diagnostic gap in addressing MDR-TB.