Partners In Health [to 20 December 2014]

Fighting Drug-Resistant TB
Posted on December 18, 2014
Nearly 100 people from 14 countries traveled this month to the Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery–Dubai. They came from Russia and Bulgaria, Romania and Belarus, Georgia and Moldova. Some worked for the Ministry of Health of their respective countries, others worked for nongovernmental organizations. They all shared a common goal: to stop the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis, a global scourge that killed more than 210,000 people in 2013.
Hosted by Partners In Health/Russia and the Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery–Dubai, participants discussed how to best design, implement, and operate programs to treat drug-resistant TB in collaboration with The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Treating multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is a grueling and complicated process that can take two years and thousands of doses of medication, some of which can cause painful side effects. It’s also a programmatic challenge that requires stellar management and deeply committed staff.