Global Health Impact: Stronger Health Systems Stop TB and Save Lives
Global Health Impact: Stronger Health Systems Stop TB and Save Lives

This blog post is a web-formatted version of the Global Health Impact newsletter: Stronger Health Systems Stop TB and Save Lives (December 2015). (View or share the email version here.) We welcome your feedback and questions in the comments or email us. On social media, use hashtag #GlobalHealthImpact and tag @MSHHealthImpact. Subscribe
An estimated two billion people worldwide are infected with mycobacterium tuberculosis, more commonly known as tuberculosis, or TB. Despite major successes reducing global TB prevalence and mortality rates, TB is the single greatest infectious disease killer globally, surpassing HIV & AIDS. In 2014, 1.5 million people died from TB, including about 400,000 who also had HIV.
TB is preventable, diagnosable, and curable. Management Sciences for Health (MSH) is working in 15 countries with international, national, and local partners to strengthen the capacity of health systems, national TB programs, and health managers to improve the lives of those affected by TB and prevent its spread. Our work addresses all elements of the health system: service delivery; leadership, management, and governance; medical products and technologies; health financing; health information; and human resources.
We consistently apply evidence-informed knowledge and technical expertise to highly complex environments and in fragile states -- Afghanistan, South Sudan, Uganda, and others -- where TB services are most desperately needed -- and among the poorest and most vulnerable populations, especially women and children.
As the global public health community gathers at the 46th Union World Conference on Lung Health to look beyond 2015, MSH re-affirms our commitment to empower countries to build lasting, whole-health, people-centered systems that save lives by incorporating the latest evidence and best practices on TB care and control. This ensures that the TB control strategies and standard operating procedures put in place are both effective and long lasting -- saving more lives and improving the health of people, communities, and nations. Read more from Dr. Pedro Suarez
MSH at 46th Union World Conference on Lung Health
Nearly 50 MSH staff are in Cape Town, South Africa to participate in the 46th Union World Conference on Lung Health, lead 4 workshops, and present 22 posters, 6 oral presentations, and 8 symposiums.
Real World Medicines Monitoring: MSH Project Launches New Tool for Improved Pharmacovigilance at # WCLH2015
#WCLH2015).]{Photo credit: Warren Zelman}" style="float: none;">The USAID-funded, MSH-led, Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) Program is launching a new tool to systematize monitoring of medicines-related safety and effectiveness in low- and middle-income countries this week at the Union World Conference on Lung Health (#WCLH2015).Photo credit: Warren Zelman
Related: More # WCLH2015 updates from MSH staff
Feature
Challenge TB is the primary mechanism for implementing USAID's vision of a world free of TB and its global End TB Strategy. Challenge TB also contributes to TB and HIV activities under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). MSH leads implementation of Challenge TB in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and South Sudan.
Afghanistan Expands Successful Urban DOTS Program
Involving Community Mobilizers in TB Control Saving Lives Amid Conflict in South Sudan
Profile
Video: Tuberculosis in Ethiopia
Highlights
QuanTB Helps Ensure Medicines Availability, Averts Waste, and Saves Money in Bangladesh
Tackling the Hidden Epidemic: Childhood TB in Ethiopia
Community Linkages: Saving Lives in Kampala, Uganda, One Patient at a Time
Related: Photo Essay: Linking Ugandan Communities to Tuberculosis Care
MSH Project Improves Detection and Treatment of TB and Multidrug-resistant TB in Eastern Uganda
Related News
- Institutionalizing e-TB Manager as a National TB Registry in Ukraine
SIAPS Program: Ukraine - Drug Safety and Monitoring Key as Bedaquiline Donation Program Launches in Georgia
SIAPS Program: Georgia - House to House: Seeking and Treating TB Cases in Democratic Republic of the Congo
Integrated Health Project: DRC - WHO Publishes LSTM-led Cross-sectional Survey on Drug Resistance of TB in Malawi
Tuberculosis Control Assistance Program: Malawi - Nationwide Roll-out of QuanTB in Uzbekistan
SIAPS Program: Uzbekistan
Resources
- QuanTB
Tool - New Version, 3.0 - e-TB Manager
Tool - TB and HIV Integration
Fact sheet - Baseline Assessment of Sample Referral Networks in Vertically Managed Disease Control Programs for HIV and TB in the Dominican Republic
Publication - Drug Use Reviews -- A Practical Strategy to Ensure the Rational Use of Anti-Tuberculosis Medicines
Publication