The USAID
TB CARE II Project,
a five-year project implemented by a wide consortium of health and
development organizations including and led by University Research Co.,
LLC (URC), began in 2010 with the aim of complementing and building upon
existing and planned projects in the Bureau for Global Health to provide
global leadership and support to National TB Programs and other
in-country partners. Since then, the project team has grown as a key
global resource for the development of innovative tools and approaches
to combat TB, multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB and TB/HIV.
TB CARE II’s work on Programmatic Management of Drug-Resistant TB
TB CARE II
works with countries to expand clinical and programmatic capacity to
diagnose and treat MDR TB, including increasing the availability of
hospital-based treatment services. In addition, TB CARE II is a key
partner in the introduction of community-based MDR TB treatment systems.
In Bangladesh, the project has assisted to increase availability of
treatment initiation for MDR TB by expanding the hospital infrastructure
and availability of hospital beds for MDR TB patients, as well as
introducing community-based MDR TB care, with 170 patients enrolled in
the past year. These patients are being managed and the quality of
services monitored through the use of innovative smart-phone based
mHealth. The lessons from these experiences are translating upward into
global best practices, which are further being shared with countries
through project-developed resources such as a Community-Based Care for
Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis: A Guide for Implementers, and a Pocket
guide for the Medical Management of MDR-TB.
TB CARE
II has also assisted in the renovation of microscopy centers;
establishment of sputum transportation system; provision of LED
microscopes, roll out of Xpert MTB/Rif machines with technical
assistance in
development of country specific algorithms. With TB CARE II support,
4,521 MTB and 968 Rif Resistant cases have been detected in Malawi and
Bangladesh thus far.
For more information, please visit
www.tbcare2.org
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