Since 2015, Tanzania has been battling a cholera outbreak, with more than 30,000 reported cases resulting in over 500 deaths. Cholera is an acute and deadly diarrheal disease that can be contracted via unsanitary food or water. Many people across the country use unsafe drinking water from contaminated sources and lack access to basic sanitation and hygiene. If detected early, however, cholera—like many other infectious diseases—is easily treatable. A strong laboratory network is critical to early diagnosis and containment.

To ensure that the areas with the highest disease burden have access to quick and accurate diagnostics, ASM has trained 16 local mentors who are working with 19 regional laboratories to advance their microbiology capacity. ASM’s objective is to train up to two mentors per site across all regions of Tanzania, with the ultimate goal of implementing sufficient laboratory capacity to support data-based decision-making for positive health outcomes.

Thus far, ASM has achieved success at all 19 locations, with mentors stationed at each site to train their fellow colleagues on proper microbiology techniques. With the introduction of trained microbiologists at sites that did not previously have employees with these skill sets, the implementation of proper diagnostic capabilities are now becoming a reality. Patients are able to receive quick and accurate diagnoses, which in turn, leads to recovery. By engaging these laboratories, ASM has been able to collect data from each site to track and identify cases of cholera and other priority diseases.