Regional Program on Tuberculosis: The Fight against TB in the Americas

Mission: Provide support to Member States in the efforts for the surveillance, control, prevention of tuberculosis (including MDR-TB, XDR-TB and TB/HIV); provide assistance to all the countries of the Region to meet PAHO goals for TB control (detection rate of 70% and success rate of 85%), sustain these achievements, and cut TB prevalence and mortality in half by 2015.

Areas of Work

• Technical assistance in monitoring and evaluation: Provide technical consulting services to the countries of the Region in monitoring and evaluating the expansion of the DOTS Strategy and in preparing projects.
• Regional and Subregional Meetings: Provide support in the organization of regional and subregional meetings to design and discuss action plans to bring about the expansion of the DOTS/TAES Strategy and to reach WHO goals.
• Technical Support to Operational Research: Provide technical consulting services to support, conduct, and monitor studies on the resistance surveillance of anti-TB drugs (MDR-TB); design and carry out operational studies to improve TB control.

• Support for Human-Resource Development (Capacity-Building): Provide support by developing courses and subregional workshops to train human resources throughout the Region.
• Production of materials, bulletins, and technical guidelines for tuberculosis: Provide support for the dissemination of plans of action, results, and experiences in the expansion of the DOTS/TAES Strategy in the Region.
• Prevention and Control Programs: Implement programs to prevent and control tuberculosis.
• Project Preparation and Monitoring: Develop, monitor, and evaluate regional and multicenter projects with extrabudgetary funding, and prepare their respective reports.

Expected Results

1. Expand DOTS coverage and improve its quality throughout the entire Region.
   1. Strengthen DOTS in indigenous and prison populations (with seminars to evaluate programs and exchange experiences funded by the countries working with these population groups).
   2. Increase access to treatment for neglected populations, as well as for TB-MDR and TB/HIV patients.
2. Strengthen the regional laboratory network (with funding for quality control of national laboratories—culture techniques, sensitivity and resistance tests—from the supranational labs).
   1. Improve epidemiological surveillance and assure the availability of program evaluation systems.
3. Strengthen the epidemiological surveillance of TB/HIV co-infection in the priority countries of the Region (funding for implementation of a form to collect information, personnel training and monitoring/evaluation from Regional TB and HIV programs, and elaboration of study on HIV prevalence among TB patients in selected countries).
4. Fund clinical studies in the Region.