Stephanie Mukandayisaba (36), a lab focal point for tuberculosis, demonstrates a TB sample processing using a GeneXpert machine at the Gisenyi District Hospital lab, Rwanda, on August 21, 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 — thanks to a test involving a small machine called the GeneXpert, which is widely used across Africa to diagnose tuberculosis. The DRC’s government has made the GeneXpert its primary method of testing for Ebola in the current outbreak.

Rwanda’s health gains in the last decade are among the world’s most dramatic. Health insurance — called Mutuelle de Santé — 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)