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Resource | Publications,
TB is infectious and spreads through the air. A third of the world's population has been infected by TB bacteria but only one in 10 will fall ill. For those with active TB, the symptoms may be mild for many months, leading to delays in diagnosis and treatment, while spreading the disease to others. Most people with TB can be cured by taking a six-month course of drugs. If treatment is incomplete, TB can come back, often, in a more resistant form. People with TB also suffer discrimination and stigma, rejection and social isolation. While there has been major progress in fighting TB, more needs to be done.
About 3 million people are "missed" each year by health systems and many therefore do not get the TB care that they need and deserve. Many of the missed will die, some will get better, others will continue to infect others.
Resource | Publications,
This policy document focuses on a collaborative move for the TB and HIV Units of Fiji to have activities that address the interface of the tuberculosis and the HIV and AIDS epidemics either it be from the preventative or the holistic care of patients who are co-infected.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the single greatest risk factor for the development of tuberculosis (TB) disease and TB is the commonest opportunistic infection in people living with HIV infection. The increasing prevalence of HIV infection in Fiji will present new and ongoing challenges to the national control of TB at all levels.
This document aims to provide the Public and Private health sectors in Fiji to ensure that appropriate preventative, treatment and care of all TB/HIV patients has been delivered in an efficient manner.
Resource | Guidelines,
Country health information systems provide a rich source of data on the burden of disease caused by tuberculosis (TB) and the effectiveness of programmatic efforts to reduce this burden, both of which are crucial for public health action. However, the available data are often underused, or not used at all. At least in part, this may reflect the absence of clear guidance on recommended approaches to the analysis of such data.
This handbook is designed to address this gap through detailed practical examples of the analysis of TB surveillance data, in particular TB notification data, data from surveillance of anti-TB drug resistance, and mortality data compiled in national vital registration systems. It starts from the most basic kinds of analyses, and progresses to the description of more challenging topics such as the estimation of disease burden using multiple sources of evidence, including data from special surveys.
Resource | Tools,
It is estimated that there are more than half a million cases of tuberculosis (TB) in children occurring globally each year. In settings with a high overall incidence of TB, children can account for a large proportion (up to one-third) of all TB cases. As a consequence, TB is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in children in TB endemic countries.
The focus is on the common challenges for diagnosis, treatment and prevention. It is often stated that the diagnosis of children is difficult. It is certainly difficult to confirm the diagnosis of TB in the majority of children with disease but the clinical diagnosis of TB in children can often be straightforward. It is often perceived that children with suspected TB disease or children in close contact with TB cases need referral to specialist paediatric services at central hospital level but this is not necessary for most cases. Therefore, the training material sets out to emphasize the management issues of the common cases in the usual scenario of presentation, not to replace the need for specialist referral and opinion.
Resource | Publications,
Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world’s deadliest communicable diseases. In 2013, an estimated 9.0 million people developed TB and 1.5 million died from the disease, 360 000 of whom were HIV-positive. TB is slowly declining each year and it is estimated that 37 million lives were saved between 2000 and 2013 through effective diagnosis and treatment. However, given that most deaths from TB are preventable, the death toll from the disease is still unacceptably high and efforts to combat it must be accelerated if 2015 global targets, set within the context of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), are to be met.
TB is present in all regions of the world and the Global Tuberculosis Report 2014 includes data compiled from 202 countries and territories. This year’s report shows higher global totals for new TB cases and deaths in 2013 than previously, reflecting use of increased and improved national data.
Resource | Tools,
The first edition of Guidance for national tuberculosis programmes on the management of tuberculosis in children was published in 2006. It resulted in the revision or development of guidelines for child TB management by national TB programmes in many TB-endemic countries. Now, however, newly published evidence and new recommendations have made it necessary to update the original 2006 guidance.
Like the original, this second edition aims to inform the revision of existing national guidelines and standards for managing TB, many of which include guidance on children. It includes recommendations, based on the best available evidence, for improving the management of children with TB and of children living in families with TB. National and regional TB control programmes may wish to adapt these recommendations according to local circumstances.
Resource | Fact Sheets,
- There are an estimated one billion migrants in the world today, which include 232 million international migrants and 740 million internal migrants.
- Tuberculosis (TB) imposes great human suffering and loss. 9 million people fell ill with TB worldwide in 2013, with 1.5 million deaths.
- TB particularly affects poor and vulnerable populations; migrants are a key affected population.
- Migration as a social determinant of health increases TB-related morbidity and mortality for migrants and their communities along all migration pathways.
Resource | Fact Sheets,
Community engagement is defined as the process of working collaboratively with and through communities to address issues affecting their well-being. Community-based TB activities are conducted outside the premises of formal health facilities (e.g. hospitals, health centres and clinics) in community-based structures (e.g. schools, places of worship, congregate settings) and homesteads.
Community health workers (CHWs) and community volunteers (CVs) carry out community-based TB activities. A CHW is a person with some formal education who is trained to contribute to community-based health services, including TB prevention and patient care and support. A CV is a community member who has been systematically sensitized about TB prevention and care, either through a short specific training scheme or through repeated contact with professional health workers. Both can be supported by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), faith-based organizations (FBOs), other civil society organizations (CSOs) and/or the government.
Resource | Publications,
The vision for the post-2015 global tuberculosis strategy is "a world free of tuberculosis", also expressed as "zero deaths, disease and suffering due to tuberculosis". The goal is to end the global tuberculosis epidemic.
The Millennium Development Goal target "to halt and begin to reverse the incidence of tuberculosis by 2015" has already been achieved. The related Stop TB Partnership targets of reducing tuberculosis prevalence and death rates by 50% relative to 1990 are on track to be achieved by 2015. Under this strategy, new, ambitious yet feasible global targets are proposed for 2035. These include achieving a 95% decline in deaths due to tuberculosis compared with 2015, and reaching an equivalent 90% reduction in tuberculosis incidence rate from a projected 110 cases/100 000 in 2015 to 10 cases/100 000 or less by 2035. These targets are equivalent to the current levels in some lowincidence countries of North America, western Europe and the Western Pacific. An additional target proposed to ascertain progress of universal health coverage and social protection is that by 2020, no tuberculosis-affected person or family should face catastrophic costs due to tuberculosis care.