The entrance to the laboratory at the Gisenyi District Hospital lab, Rwanda, on August 20, 2019. Health workers fighting the Ebola epidemic that swept West Africa several years ago waited days, even a week, for the results of laboratory tests to detect the deadly virus. But in the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), this waiting time has shrunk to hours Ñ thanks to a test involving a small machine called the GeneXpert, which is widely used across Africa to diagnose tuberculosis. The DRCÕs government has made the GeneXpert its primary method of testing for Ebola in the current outbreak.

RwandaÕs health gains in the last decade are among the worldÕs most dramatic. Health insurance Ñ called Mutuelle de SantŽ Ñ is nearly universal, life expectancy rose from 29 to 68 years between 1994 and 2015, and mortality during childbirth fell by 70% over the same period. (Photo by Nichole Sobecki/VII for The Global Fund)