Stop TB Partnership

TB Treatment at Home

Initiative for Health Foundation carried out a series of health sessions, including TB testing in 9 isolated Roma settlements in Sofia, in the period June 2011 - February 2012. During one of the last sessions that were carried out in the quarter “Faculteta” there was a family with six children who attended the session. TB was not unfamiliar story for them – both parents suffered TB four years ago. Children were negative then. Now the mother decided to get her children tested again and they did so in the mobile van of the Initiative for Health Foundation. Two of the children – 9 and 11 years old - were positive and they were further referred to the Sofia TB Dispensary for follow-up testing. After the children were diagnosed with tuberculosis, they were admitted for in-patient treatment in the children’s department of the Lung Diseases Hospital in Sofia. However, it was not easy for the children who come from a segregated Roma community to stay away from their community and to adapt to the hospital environment and rules. Very soon they left the hospital by jumping from the balcony of the hospital room and ran back to the community.

The hospital staff then contacted Ivan - an experienced Roma outreach worker at Initiative for Health Foundation, a man who lives in the community and knows people well, but is also trained to pass health messages and to negotiate healthy behavior with his neighborhoods and friends. The hospital staff knows him well, because it is not the first time when he accompanies Roma patients and contacts the hospital to ensure there follow-up. Ivan found the family and talked to them as a friend. The family and the medical staff agreed that the treatment may continue at home. The medication and surveillance was provided at home and Ivan kept on visiting the family to ensure that the treatment is followed properly. It is still continued and so far the checks inform that the recovery goes successfully.

UPDATES

The application period for CFCS Round 10 is now closed and the review process is under way

CFCS Round 9 is under way, with grantees continuing implementation