Thanks to a small device, the fight against tuberculosis is taking an enormous step forward – stories

June 29, 2026

In 2024, Zambia experienced a devastating drought – the worst in a generation. The effects were felt in almost every aspect of each day life, including the country’s healthcare system.

As rivers and reservoirs recede, Zambia’s electricity supply is getting ready to collapse. Since over 80% of electricity comes from hydroelectric power plants, energy production within the country has dropped to historically low levels as a result of the prevailing drought. The outages disrupted business operations, halted production lines and limited public services. Less visible consequences of power outages included the impact on tuberculosis diagnosis.

Most large-scale TB testing world wide relies on large molecular diagnostic machines. These machines are highly accurate, but are expensive to take care of, require stable electricity, and sometimes require an air-conditioned environment to operate properly. As Zambia’s energy crisis deepened, tuberculosis testing on large diagnostic machines began to interrupt down.

“We had challenges: we could live for hours without electricity,” said Dr. Eddie Solo, head of the tuberculosis laboratory at Lusaka University Teaching Hospital. “We tried to install backup systems, but we couldn’t cover the power loss.”

But standing in his bustling laboratory, Dr. Solo pointed to a tool that matches easily in his hand – and offers a solution to this challenge. “The new device is battery-powered, and that makes a big difference.”

The device, called a near point of care (NPOC) test, is designed to operate with minimal power. In conditions where electricity is scarce or unreliable, low test power requirements could make an enormous difference. Unlike the massive diagnostic platforms that dominate much of the world’s anti-TB infrastructure, NPOC devices could be utilized in primary care settings – where most individuals with TB first seek care – helping to fill a critical gap in TB treatment: timely diagnosis on the community level.

Their importance extends far beyond Zambia.

Tuberculosis stays the world’s deadliest infectious disease. In 2024 alone, tuberculosis claimed the lives of over 1.2 million people worldwide. That yr, 10.7 million people contracted the disease, including an estimated 2.4 million individuals who were “missed” by health care systems – left undiagnosed, untreated or unreported. Those who go missing are in danger not only of dying from the disease, but additionally of transmitting the infection to as many as 15–20 other people every year.

Once diagnosed, treatment could be very effective, with a world treatment success rate of near 90%. The challenge is to discover people early enough – before the disease takes a devastating toll on their health, potentially resulting in death, and before they unknowingly transmit it to others.

That’s why the brand new NPOC tests matter. By bringing high-quality diagnostics closer to people – especially those living in underserved and distant communities – healthcare staff can discover more individuals with disease more quickly.

In the approaching months, the partnership led by the Global Fund, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and implemented by the Aurum Institute will deliver almost 3 million of those tests to people in countries including Bangladesh, Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia.

These supplies could possibly be a game-changer within the fight against tuberculosis. Benin Health Minister Benjamin Hounkpatin, whose country was first in line for diagnosis in June, captured the spirit of the moment: “This marks an important step forward in our efforts to provide high-quality TB services to everyone, including those living in remote communities. By bringing rapid and accurate diagnosis closer to the front lines of care, we can find people earlier, start treatment sooner and save many lives.”

Delivering leads to lower than an hour, this recent class of NPOC tests offers significantly greater accuracy than smear microscopy, which has long been the one diagnostic tool in lots of decentralized facilities.

For countries facing the dual challenges of high tuberculosis burdens and fragile or overstretched health systems – burdened by conflict, emerging disease epidemics and increasingly frequent extreme weather events – the potential of those devices is big.

This recent tool also complements more centralized molecular diagnostic platforms akin to GeneXpert, which remain essential to conduct additional testing in individuals who test positive for NPOC, akin to for the diagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis. As more persons are tested in primary care, the demand for drug-resistant TB testing is anticipated to extend.

“These new tools have a major impact on TB diagnosis, but we do not see them as a replacement for existing molecular tests. Rather, they are a powerful complement to diagnostic tools already in use that can help accelerate efforts to find the millions of missing people with TB,” said Dr. Eliud Wandwalo, Director of TB on the Global Fund.

For the TB community, which has experienced a long time of historically neglected innovations – from a century-old microscopy for diagnosis, to a century-old vaccine, to treatments for drug-resistant TB with serious and devastating uncomfortable side effects – this breakthrough is very significant.

The bedside tool adds momentum to the growing wave of innovations in tuberculosis treatment over the past few years and represents one other vital milestone in defeating one in every of humanity’s oldest and deadliest diseases.

“For too long, tuberculosis has been a forgotten pandemic,” Dr. Wandwalo said. “With a renewed product portfolio that gives us tools like NPOC, among others, we can accelerate the response and finally make this disease a thing of the past.”