Sub Group on ACSM at Country Level - Information Note: August 2006

Dear Members of the ACSM Sub Group at Country Level

Information Note: August 2006

2nd Annual Meeting of the ACSM Sub Group at Country Level
27-29 September 2006
Hotel Marriot
Milan, Italy

The second annual meeting of the ACSM Sub Group (ACSM SG) at Country Level is seven weeks away. This meeting will be held in conjunction with ACSM SG Task Force on Community Based TB Care. A preliminary agenda will be distributed on 7 August with invitations and conference details being distributed on 18 August. All members of the sub group are encouraged to save the date.

GFATM 6th Round

Today, 3 August 2006, is the deadline for submission of proposals to the GFATM in the sixth round. The Stop TB Partnership, partners, WHO country and regional offices and SG members spearheaded another impressive effort assisting more than 14 countries in developing ACSM components to their TB proposals. A complete report of the sub group's efforts and the number of approved TB proposals with ACSM components will be made available after the GFATM Technical Review Panel makes public its findings.

Partner Notes:

Developmental Media International, in partnership with the Brazilian Ministry of Health and USAID, recently released its findings of a mass media project for TB in Brazil.

The results show the following: that of 1000 people interviewed after the campaign (representative of people aged 20-50, from social classes C,D and E) 4% went to a health centre as a result of the campaign to get a persistent cough checked for TB. This is a significant result, and represents real behaviour change. This data being cross checked with the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

The DMI model of media campaigning is to work in partnership with national TV and radio stations. In this case, the TV and radio spots were broadcast 8000 times on 13 TV stations in Brazil, as well as on 2326 radio stations. The total amount of airtime donated free of charge was US$ 12.3 million. The total cost of the project was US$ 316K, so these figures represent a leverage of more than 3800% on USAID’s initial investment.

For a copy of the full report please check the ACSM SG Web Site at: here

Other partners and members of the SG are encouraged to send their project reports or materials for wider distribution to: Thaddeus Pennas, Secretary, ACSM SG at Country Level.