Tuberculosis

Promoting Prevention to Save Lives

The World Health Organization (WHO) 2022 Global TB report says you need only a breath to inhale the few germs needed to become infected with Tuberculosis (TB), the “world’s top infectious killer”. In 2021, about 10.6 million worldwide people fell ill with TB and 1.6 million died from it - about 4,100 people each day.

PSI India deployed a range of adaptive new-age interventions that went beyond the binary of Public - Private participation. These included support to Government of India’s National Strategic Plan for Elimination of Tuberculosis (NSP 2017-25), and Project Axshya (spread across 10 states and more than seven million beneficiaries) -examples of innovative and pragmatic solutions in provision of healthcare services for TB.

Ear to The Ground: People Come First

PSI India stand for an equitable and stigma-free TB response by prioritising listening to, supporting and respecting the opinion of people and communities affected by TB, as well as those of other stakeholders and partners. In communities, we have endeavored to implement Axshya Samvad, wherein trained community volunteers dialogue with communities to develop and implement people-centric responses to TB elimination.

Project Axshya reaches out to more than
seven million beneficiaries spread across 10 states
in India

Innovation & Technology Drive People-Centric Solutions

PSI India have continuously invested in new approaches, strategies and technologies to scale up treatment; simultaneously, we strive to decentralise service delivery to bring it closer to patients.

For example, our Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus project demonstrates the successful integration of TB services with other urban public health initiatives for developing state-specific plans for TB elimination.

Similarly, our e-pharmacy model leverages AI/digital technology for doorstep delivery of anti-TB drugs and diagnostic services to patients. It also shares verified patient data on government Nikshay&Nikshay Aushadhi portals to ensure an updated patient registry.

Capacity Building: Making the Better Best

PSI India has a vigorous training and engagement process that includes steering, participating, joining or conducting national-level TB program reviews and assessments with World Health Organisation (WHO), NTEP, Indian Council of Medical Research, and other partners. The focus is on capturing voices of TB affected communities in the formulation of policies, programme design, monitoring and evaluation, etc.

The capacity building initiative for AYUSH and RHCP is to identify, detect and refer TB patients in diverse populations/age group ensure they are linked to DOTS services, while follow-up and adherence to treatment is ensured by counselling DR-TB patients in all 30 project districts through facility and home-based counselling by trained counselors.

Partnerships That Catalyse New Ideas

Wash is one of the best investments to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals. Access to voluntary family planning has been proven to have transformative impacts on communities and countries to promote health and prosperity. As a crosscutting contributor to reducing poverty, family planning improves gender equity, has economic benefits for families and cities, and reduces maternal and new-born deaths. PSI India is at the help of supporting government reduce the burden of maternal mortality and increase uptake of voluntary basket of choice of family planning methods.