March 24, 2007: World TB Day

In Bangladesh IntraHealth is helping to increase the capacity of providers to meet the service needs of TB patients. Approximately half of the adults in Bangladesh are infected with tuberculosis bacilli, and 300,000 develop the disease every year. Through the NGO Service Delivery Program, in which IntraHealth is a partner, both detection and successful treatment rates have increased.

IntraHealth is also fighting TB in Ethiopia, focusing on helping private-sector organizations increase access to affordable, high-quality prevention and care services. As a partner in the PSP Ethiopia/ Fenote Tesfa Project, we are strengthening clinical service delivery, improving referral networks and enhancing health systems including building the capacity of health care providers. In 2005, over 120,000 Ethiopians had TB and were treated for the disease. Nevertheless, the case detection rate stands at 36%, which implies that significant numbers of TB patients are not getting necessary services. Since March 2005, Fenote Tesfa has succeeded in the development of TB treatment policy in the private sector. To date the project is supporting 20 private health facilities in two large Ethiopian regions with estimated population of greater than 28 million people. The workplace TB/HIV program also reached 56 big companies that help their workers access health care services, with an estimated population of more than 400,000 people.