Zambia: Why Zambia Is Rethinking Tuberculosis Testing, and Why Validation Must Come First

Inside a small laboratory at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, a technician splits a sputum sample in two. Half goes into a GeneXpert machine, the workhorse of tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis in Zambia. The other half goes into a near-point-of-care molecular device, small enough to sit beside a phone, powered by battery or external power, and capable of delivering results in under an hour.

The technician is comparing the new test’s result with the country’s established…