FY2014 Semi-Annual Performance Report: Control and Prevention-Tuberculosis (CAP-TB) in Burma, Thailand, and Yunnan, China

The project's overall goal is to eliminate MDR-TB through patient-centered, community-driven support. The CAP-TB strategy focuses on three key objectives: preventing disease transmission through effective infection control, increasing MDR-TB diagnosis through training and education, and maximizing treatment success through a comprehensive "living support package" for patients. This package includes nutrition and transportation support, psychosocial care, and home visits, phone calls, and engagement through social media platforms. In Burma, one of the project's strongest achievements is the comprehensive living support package for MDR-TB patients, which has been recognized by the National TB Program and the World Health Organization as a model for MDR-TB treatment support. The project's patient-centered, community-driven approach is implemented in urban, rural, and industrial regions of the country, enabling the development of a strategy that can be utilized in different settings. In China, CAP-TB has developed innovative strategies for educating patients and healthcare providers, including engaging MDR-TB peer counselors, initiating patient support groups, and leveraging social media momentum. These strategies have attracted interest from national and local health authorities, increasing the potential for CAP-TB's initiatives to be sustainably scaled up throughout the country. In Thailand, CAP-TB has focused on strengthening the TB system as a cohesive whole, with a particular emphasis on capacity building for critical thinking among TB healthcare workers. This is done through monthly case conferences, patient cohort review, and an innovative e-learning platform. The goal is to develop capacity at the provincial level in Rayong for complex MDR-TB case management and to build a system for routine monitoring of all MDR-TB patients. To ensure the project's sustainability and scalability, CAP-TB has identified the need to engage three sectors of the health system: public health, clinical, and academic. The project's model for patient support has shown promising results, including a significant decline in treatment default in Kunming's MDR-TB patients from 47% to less than 5%. These successes will be tracked over the next two years to assess the project's impact on MDR-TB incidence and mortality. The project's collaboration with various arenas of the health system has made it increasingly clear that a critical priority is to ensure that the project is sustainable and scalable. This requires engagement from the public health, clinical, and academic sectors, as well as the development of a strategy that can be utilized in different settings and contexts.