President of Tanzania and the Abbott Fund Dedicate Modern Emergency Medical Department

President of Tanzania and the Abbott Fund Dedicate Modern Emergency Medical
Department
Facility is First in Tanzania to Meet International Standards in Emergency
Medicine; Effort is Latest Result of Longstanding Partnership to Strengthen
Tanzania's Health Care System

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time, emergency
room services meeting international standards will be a part Tanzania's public
health system, thanks to the opening of a new Emergency Medical Department
building and extensive training being conducted at Muhimbili National
Hospital. At a ceremony yesterday, President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of the
United Republic of Tanzania joined representatives from the Abbott Fund in
dedicating the new facility. The building renovations, new equipment and
staff training are being supported by a grant from the Abbott Fund, the
philanthropic foundation of the global health care company Abbott. The
initiative is part of a broader partnership between the Government of Tanzania
and the Abbott Fund to strengthen the country's health care system.

"The opening of this emergency center will help to save lives in Dar es Salaam
and across the region, and will lead to fundamental differences in emergency
care training in the future," said President Kikwete. "We are grateful for
this latest step in our long and very successful partnership with the Abbott
Fund."

Emergency medicine is not a specialty that is typically offered as part of
medical training in most parts of Africa. As a result, patients admitted to
public hospitals for acute conditions generally receive limited care until a
specialist is available to provide treatment. With the opening of the new
Emergency Medical Department, state-of-the-art urgent care will be available
to patients. A comprehensive training program will upgrade emergency care
expertise for staff at Muhimbili, with the long-term goal of training future
physicians in the specialty of Emergency Medicine.

"The new Emergency Medical Department provides resources and procedures that
significantly improve urgent medical care at our hospital," said Professor
Leonard Lema, executive director, Muhimbili National Hospital. "Our broader
goal is to utilize this department as a training ground and create a residency
program in emergency medicine at Muhimbili. This will help elevate the level
of emergency care expertise in other hospitals in Tanzania."

The $3 million project is an extension of the Abbott Fund's partnership with
the Government of Tanzania to improve health care infrastructure and systems
in Tanzania. The Abbott Fund has invested more than $60 million to date in
one of the largest public-private partnerships in Africa aimed at enhancing
access to health care on a national scale. Today, one in three people with
HIV taking antiretroviral therapy receive services at a facility that has
benefited from Abbott Fund support.

"Throughout our partnership in Tanzania, we have worked with the government to
identify critical needs in the health care system and develop solutions that
will have the greatest impact in improving people's lives," said Catherine
Babington, president, the Abbott Fund. "Through this new facility and a
strong focus on staff training, our goal is to significantly improve emergency
medical care in Tanzania."

To quickly strengthen local expertise, emergency room physicians and nurses
from academic centers in the U.S. are working side by side with staff at
Muhimbili and mentoring them in standard emergency room procedures and
equipment use. Training focuses on basic life support, adult cardiac life
support, pediatric life support and advanced trauma life support. The staff
also is learning how to use new diagnostic equipment, including point-of-care
testing that can provide rapid insights into underlying disease and the
overall health status of patients. In addition, MRI and CT scanning equipment
also will be available. To date, more than 500 health workers have received
training in emergency care at Muhimbili. Dr. Alwyn Mziray, a native Tanzanian
trained in emergency medicine in the U.S., has returned to Tanzania to lead
the project and co-manage the new center.

About the Abbott Fund in Tanzania
The modernization of the Emergency Medical Department at Muhimbili is the
latest effort in an ongoing partnership between the Abbott Fund and the
Government of Tanzania to strengthen the country's health care system. In
2007, the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
(GBC) honored the Abbott Fund with an Award for Business Excellence for
National Action for its public-private partnership with the Government of
Tanzania. Key results to date include:

-- Improving laboratory services on a national scale by modernizing all
23
regional-level hospital laboratories in Tanzania. Nearly half of the
labs have already been built or renovated, with the full program
anticipated to be completed by the end of 2010.
-- At Muhimbili National Hospital, the Abbott Fund built a new outpatient
center that serves about a thousand patients each day and integrates
HIV
care with other services, and renovated, automated and computerized
the
central pathology laboratory.
-- Conducted more than 15,000 health care worker trainings.
-- Provided HIV counseling and testing for more than 300,000 people, and
donated 1 million rapid HIV tests to the Tanzanian national HIV
testing
initiative.

-- Helped more than 150,000 children and families by providing access to
health services, education and training, and pioneering legal
protection
for orphans and widows affected by HIV/AIDS.

About Abbott and the Abbott Fund
The Abbott Fund is a philanthropic foundation established by Abbott in 1951.
The Abbott Fund's mission is to create healthier global communities by
investing in creative ideas that promote science, expand access to health care
and strengthen communities worldwide. For more information, visit
www.abbottfund.org.

Abbott (NYSE: ABT) is a global, broad-based health care company devoted to the
discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceuticals and
medical products, including nutritionals, devices and diagnostics. The
company employs more than 72,000 people and markets its products in more than
130 countries. Abbott's news releases and other information are available on
the company's Web site at www.abbott.com.

SOURCE Abbott

International Media, Matt Bedella, +1-847-936-3394, or East Africa Media,
Prateek Patnaik, +255-688-493-750, both of Abbott