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