Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide. About one quarter of Vanuatu’s population is infected with tuberculosis (TB) bacteria. Only a small proportion of those infected will become sick with TB. People with weakened immune systems have a much greater risk of falling ill from TB
Summary of Services
The key functions of the National TB program under routine conditions are:
- defining the National TB strategy
- Establish and update national technical policies and guidelines on TB case detection and treatment for health facilities and laboratories.
- planning and evaluation of the NTP activities, including preparation of budgets and action plans
- Ensuring that a high priority is given to the NTP by allocation of adequate financial, human and material resources and coordination with TB laboratories and overseas reference laboratory.
- Ensuring a continuous supply of MDTs, anti-TB drugs, laboratory reagents and equipment, etc.
- Supervision and capacity building of health workers
- Evaluation of TB quarterly reports and treatment outcomes
- Ensuring that new Leprosy cases are registered and treated according to national guideline
- Routine reporting internally and externally
Objectives
- Provide early rapid and quality diagnosis of TB, MDR-TB, TB/DM and TB/HIV with specific focus on screening and diagnosis in selected and prioritized hard to reach, Vulnerable groups across the country
- Sustain high quality treatment for all forms of TB including drug-resistant TB and HIV related TB with patient and community support
- Prevent TB through diagnosis and treatment of latent TB infection for high risk groups and scaling up of infection control measures
Means of Service Delivery
- Conduct National TB program review and planning meeting
- Finalisation of the National Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis Control Programme 2016-2020
- Finalisation of the revised National Tuberculosis Control Program Guidelines for Programmatic Management of Tuberculosis
- Organise capacity building workshops for TB program officers including laboratory
- Organise awareness and capacity building workshops with civil society (CSO), faith base (FBO) and Non-Government (NGO) organisations
- Conduct routine supervision, Monitoring and Evaluation activities