Picture 1: INDIA (lepra.ch)
Picture 2: Tanzania (Novartis Foundation)
The issues in TB of Big cities is many. They range right from problems related to the patient with lacunae’s present in the TB programme itself
The important aspects to note in case of big cities are complex urban settings- where most of the times there are fair amount of avenues to seek assistance for health related problems but nevertheless less accessible and hardly appropriate .Is it possible that in such complex situations TB treatment with adequate compliance be ascertained ??? and specially where only NTP is the last resort for the Poor who has priorities more important than his disease , Answer: Most of the places its difficult to ascertain .
Many issues cannot be solved by the Programme unless partnerships and linkages are created with different stake holders & with specialized interventions , involving the TB affected Population as well.
It has been observed in many cases that the issues which had no answer by the Programme got solved once the family, neighborhood or surrounding community took initiatives to help their brethren and Neighborhoods.
When an insight of the disease is given in the community then not only we make awareness and human resources developed within the community to fight TB but also create a atmosphere which multiplies this expertise over years to come.
Working Group(WG): Two Projects in India and Tanzania (illustrations) have already initiated work in this respect i.e Involvement of community in TB in big cities of Mumbai and Arusha respectively .
The Subgroup could be gather information from different partners and regions on Community's support to TB along with various indicators which were acheived as a result of the same or to and discuss among the WG as to how this subject would be developed further.
The column of comment 's and discussions by email can be utilised for the above.
