RESULTS

Overview

In 2001, Abbott, the Abbott Fund and the Government of Tanzania formed a public-private partnership to strengthen the country's health care system and address critical areas of need. To date, the Abbott Fund has invested more than $95 million in this more than 10-year partnership effort, and Abbott has made more than $5 million in corporate donations.

The Abbott Fund has been working to comprehensively modernize Muhimbili National Hospital. Key improvements include: a new emergency-medicine department that served 30,000 patients in its first year of operations; a new outpatient treatment center that serves hundreds of patients per day; a modernized hospital laboratory building; a hospital-wide IT system that tracks inventory, prescriptions and patient health history; and training for hospital managers and health care workers.

In 2011, the Abbott Fund completed a $10 million regional laboratory modernization project by building new laboratories at 23 regional-level hospitals nationwide. This national program is improving diagnostics and monitoring services across the country. Specialized Abbott employee volunteers provide mentoring in laboratory management.

The Abbott Fund has supported more than 19,000 health care worker trainings in HIV care and treatment, voluntary counseling and testing, laboratory equipment operation, hospital information technology and hospital management.

Results include significantly increasing access to HIV testing, care and treatment. A 2007 assessment by the government found that nearly one in three people undergoing HIV treatment in Tanzania were receiving care at one of the more than 90 sites around the country that have benefited from Abbott Fund support. Abbott also donated 1 million rapid HIV tests to launch Tanzania’s national HIV testing campaign. The Abbott Fund has also partnered with the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative to build a pediatric AIDS Center of Excellence in Tanzania. The new center will train local health care workers and expand access to pediatric HIV/AIDS care and treatment across the country.