Clinton Foundation’s project to help reporting of TB cases

The Clinton Foundation is implementing a project in Coimbatore to improve the reporting of tuberculosis cases treated by private practitioners.

It is intended to reduce the conversion of otherwise treatable TB cases to Multi-Drug Resistant TB (MDR TB), which does not respond to the two most powerful first-line anti-TB drugs.

Sources in the State Government’s TB Centre here told The Hindu on Tuesday that the project assumes significance since nearly half of all TB cases are treated by private sector. Even though TB is a notifiable disease, which makes it mandatory for all doctors to report the cases, the compliance rate is poor.

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Under this new initiative, taken up under the Foundation’s Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), two field officers of the Foundation have been posted at a couple of private micro-laboratories here. The Foundation subsidises the cost of TB testing in these laboratories.

They have begun collecting details on the number of positive cases on a daily basis and are submitting weekly reports to the District TB Centre, which will deploy health workers for follow-up.

The officers will also conduct programmes for private doctors on the need for proper testing and on the need for reporting of TB cases, the testing facilities available in the district, and risks of MDR TB.

Two analysts from the Foundation held a meeting with the TB officials here last month. The field officers began collecting data from this month. While they will facilitate follow-up by the district TB teams, the field officers will not reach out to patients directly, sources said.

Only around 15 of the 400-odd private hospitals in the district were filing monthly reports on ‘Nikshay,’ an online monitoring that provides real-time surveillance of TB cases to the Central TB Division of the Union Health Ministry.