Reducing TB Mortality and Morbidity Among Diabetics in Bangladesh

USAID Bangladesh local partner Alliance for Combating TB in Bangladesh (ACTB) has partnered with the Bangladesh Diabetic Association (BADAS) to fight TB-diabetes mellitus (DM) comorbidity. BADAS is a local private organization that has an extensive network of affiliated academies, institutions, doctors, allied health professionals, and countrywide health service delivery points. more »

Preventing Tuberculosis Transmission In Cambodia

In Cambodia, USAID’s Community Mobilization Initiatives to End Tuberculosis (COMMIT) Project, led by local partner KHANA, supports the Cambodian National Tuberculosis Program (CENAT), Ministry of Health, and Provincial Health Departments (PHD) implement TPT in ten underserved health districts. Together, they provided 15 TPT training sessions to 242 health care providers. more »

The Motorcycle Man of Khunti

When India began its nationwide lockdown in March 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, people with tuberculosis who depend on daily medications to treat and cure the disease were particularly concerned. With roads closed and no easy access to TB medications, they risked missing doses. Without life-saving TB medications, patients can become more seriously ill or develop the more deadly drug-resistant TB. more »

Overcoming TB and Stigma in India

B Chinmayee is a classical Indian dancer from Odisha, a state on India’s eastern coast. After she was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) in 2017, a bout of TB meningitis left her paralyzed in a hospital, and she subsequently suffered a miscarriage. more »

In A Crowded Prison, USAID Provides Tools And Training To Fight TB

USAID and provincial authorities test, isolate, and treat for TB infection in Democratic Republic of Congo prison. more »

TB Detection Rates Rise After Community Campaigns

Five days of contact tracing campaigns led community health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo to connect 125 new TB patients with treatment and nutritional support. more »

Health Zone Improves TB Detection Rate In The Democratic Republic Of Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is among 30 countries with the highest tuberculosis (TB) burden, including for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and HIV-related TB. However, detection rates remain low in provinces such as Lomami. more »

Wellness On Wheels: Detecting TB Cases In Nigeria

Tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) remain large problems in Nigeria. To improve TB case detection and treatment, USAID supports Wellness on Wheels (WoW) Mobile Diagnostic Units in 14 high TB burden states. Implemented by USAID local partner KNCV Nigeria, these trucks engage in active case finding, and then refer those who test positive for treatment. more »

Finding TB Cases In Uganda’s Karamoja Region

In 2019, Uganda’s Ministry of Health declared the Karamoja region, with an estimated population of 1.2 million, to have one of the highest TB burdens in Uganda. Within the region, the Ministry of Health approximated that five of every 10 TB patients complete treatment successfully, and only three in 10 are cured. more »

Re-Strategizing For A Pandemic: The Private Sector’s Role In Improving TB Case Detection In Nigeria During COVID-19

SHOPS Plus Nigeria is increasing the availability of and access to TB services in the private sector by establishing private provider networks made up of different cadres to detect, diagnose, and successfully treat TB. These networks include clinicians, patent proprietary medicine vendors (PPMVs), community pharmacists (CPs), and labs. more »

Ensuring TB Treatment Continues During The COVID-19 Lockdown In India

When India took measures to shut down the country to contain the spread of COVID-19 in March, access to medications and food became significant problems for many TB patients. Although the government had set up numerous support systems to help vulnerable TB patients in need of food and medication, few TB patients knew how to access them in the early days of the pandemic and lockdown. To bridge these gaps in Bengaluru, the USAID-supported TB Health Action Learning Initiative (THALI) project team, stepped in to help facilitate access to much needed services. more »

New Detection Strategy Expands TB Treatment In Vietnam

Vietnam is among 30 countries with the highest TB burden in the world and is 11th within those 30 countries with the highest burden of drug-resistant (DR-TB). In February 2020, the USAID Sustainable HIV and Tuberculosis Response from Technical Assistance (SHIFT) project partnered with Vietnam’s National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) in seven priority provinces to improve TB detection and treatment, including An Giang, one of the highest TB burden provinces. more »

Integrating TB Screening Into COVID-19 Screening Clinics In Burma

According to an analysis by Burma’s National TB Program, there was a 40-percent decrease in the number of detected TB cases in April 2020 compared to last year. Due to COVID-19 movement restrictions, health services, including about 50 percent of General Practice clinics, had to slow down to almost a complete stop. TB mobile case-finding activities stopped, and people were also reluctant to go to the health facilities... more »

Tracking TB Treatment Adherence During COVID-19 In Burma

Due to movement restrictions in Burma during the COVID-19 pandemic, patient access to continued TB treatment has been largely reduced, which impacts successfully treating TB and increases the risk of drug-resistant forms of TB. In order to mitigate this problem, USAID introduced and supports the 99DOTS tool, implemented by PSI/Myanmar through the Essential Health bilateral project. The 99DOTS tool enables private health care providers to track TB patients’ adherence to treatment regimens. Doctors were able to provide multi-month supplies of treatment to TB patients in advance, and then track and remind patients to adhere to their regimens through the 99DOTS platform. With USAID’s support, Burma’s National TB Program is now planning to pilot 99DOTS in their public health care facilities... more »

USAID Strengthens Kyrgyz Republic Response To TB During COVID-19

When the first cases of COVID-19 were registered in the Kyrgyz Republic in late March, the Kyrgyz Government announced a state of emergency in some parts of the country, with strict lockdown measures in order to contain the epidemic. On March 23, the Ministry of Health (MOH) issued a decree to convert the specialized 30-bed ward for treatment of patients with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) at the National Tuberculosis Center (NTC) to host COVID-19 patients, as well as the main building of the NTC with 196 additional beds as a reserve... more »

USAID Local Partner Khana Continues TB Services In Cambodia During COVID-19

In June, U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia Patrick Murphy, accompanied by USAID staff and local government officials, conducted a site visit to see mobile community outreach TB screening in Kandal Province, Cambodia, implemented by local partner, KHANA... more »

Local Organization IRD South Africa Maintains Access To TB Services

South Africa’s COVID-19 level 5 lockdown resulted in significant challenges in accessing TB care for patients. One of the biggest concerns was the decommissioning of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) services in facilities like Tshwane District Hospital to make way for a COVID-19 isolation ward. To address this, the local organization, Interactive Research and Development (IRD) SA, proactively started contacting DR-TB patients who had been redirected to other facilities to ensure that patients did not miss their appointments... more »

Increasing TB Case Finding In The Midst Of COVID-19 In Nigeria

After seeing the impact of COVID-19 in Lagos, the Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus team recognized it was only a matter of time before a lockdown could derail TB service delivery in the northern state of Kano. Shortly after a lockdown in Lagos was imposed, the team began to roll out a series of interventions designed to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and an imminent lockdown in Kano... more »

Post-Training Mentoring Of Health Workers Improves Health Facility Weekly Epidemiological Surveillance Reporting On TB In Karamoja Region

In Uganda’s Karamoja region, district health teams ensure that all health facilities submit weekly epidemiological surveillance reports to the Ministry of Health using an SMS-based platform called MTRAC. This report provides an update on a number of notifiable diseases, including TB testing and treatment... more »