With USAID at the forefront, the United States Government (USG) is an international leader in the fight to prevent and control tuberculosis (TB), which kills about 1.4 million people annually. Over the past 12 years, the USG has provided approximately $953 million through USAID’s programs to improve TB services in 40 countries, saving lives and preventing the spread of TB and multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB. The goal of the USG efforts to control TB is to contribute significantly to the reduction of TB transmission and deaths globally, which is laid out in the newly released USG Global TB Strategy [PDF, 483KB].

GHI’s target in the area of combating TB by 2014 is to save approximately 1.3 million lives by contributing to the treatment of a minimum of 2.6 million new sputum smear positive TB cases and 57,200 MDR cases of TB, and contributing to a 50 percent reduction in TB deaths and disease burden relative to the 1990 baseline.

In Belarus, USAID places a special emphasis on eradicating TB. USAID supports implementation of the National TB program and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria grant. USAID-sponsored activities introduce international standards into the national health system with an emphasis on a patient-focused model of early TB prevention and treatment, support development of training courses on MDR TB treatment, strengthen TB control systems, facilitate design of policies and programs to advocate and raise awareness of the general public on different aspects of TB prevention, control and treatment.

In 2011, USAID contributed to development of guidelines on TB prevention and treatment in children and Guidelines on TB care in primary healthcare facilities awaiting final approval by the national healthcare system. Coordination of national TB and HIV services was further enhanced with USAID support: Belarusian experts received international training on issues of TB/HIV prevention and treatment. In 2011 USAID as well supported drug resistance survey which discovered an alarmingly high rate of MDR TB. The survey team developed recommendations on a system for deployment of rapid diagnostic tools, improvements of the drug supply as prospective solutions to the problem.

Click here for more information on USAID programming in combating TB.