Our custom-built mobile x-ray unit was the star of the show at the E-DETECT TB screening programme launch in Bucharest on 20th November.

The launch, held at Bucharest’s Ramada Parc Hotel, gave Romanian health officials, civil society and the media a chance to visit the unit, which has been operating around the country since September.

It is expected that the E-DETECT TB screening programme will be a major step forwards in Romania’s battle against tuberculosis infection.  Government officials such as the Minister of Health, Sorina Pintea, and the country’s national TB programme manager, Dr Munteanu, are supporting the initiative and spoke at the event.

The launch has been met with great enthusiasm in Romania, a country which is devoting significant resources to combat TB infection.  Romania currently has the highest TB burden in the EU, with 1,000 deaths and a further 16,000 infections annually – five times the EU average rate.

The mobile x-ray unit will visit hard-to-reach, vulnerable people who will be offered TB screening and, in detected cases, given support and follow-up care.  This approach has been modelled on similar initiatives in Rotterdam and London, whose personnel have worked closely with the Romanian team in the programme’s development.

Read more:

Press release (in English)
Work package factsheet in in Romanian and in English
Article and video report from Stirile TV (in Romanian)
Report on A1 news website (in Romanian)
Report on DC Medical website (in Romanian)
Report on Ro Health Review website (in Romanian)
Report on Revista De Alba website (in Romanian)
Report on EVZ website (in Romanian)
Report on HotNews website (in Romanian)
Report and audio clip on Radio Oltenia-Craiova website (in Romanian)
Article on KNCV website (in English)