Stanford health experts help develop North Korea's first drug-resistant tuberculosis diagnostic lab

After famines plagued North Korea in the 1990s, the country witnessed a resurgence of tuberculosis.  Thanks to efforts by Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) to forge broader engagement with North Korea, Stanford specialists are now working to develop that country's first diagnostic laboratory to test drug-resistant tuberculosis. The TB Diagnostics Project was launched in early 2008 when North Korean doctors visited California and met with Stanford and Bay Area tuberculosis experts. "This effort represents an unprecedented level of cooperation between the U.S. partners and the North Korean Ministry of Public Health," said CISAC's Professor Emeritus John Lewis, a Ploughshares Fund grantee.

Stanford Unversity