IMPACT is a five-year project of USAID/Philippines that engages both public and private sectors at the national level to detect and successfully treat TB cases. IMPACT provides technical assistance to the Department of Health’s (DOH) National TB Control Program and works directly with 43 provinces and cities throughout the country.

The magnitude of TB problem in the Philippines has kept the country among the 22 countries with high burden of TB disease, ranking 8th. The National TB Prevalence Survey in 2007 showed that 2.1 percent of new TB cases and 13 percent of re-treatment cases are drug-resistant TB, of which 3.9 percent are multiple drug resistant.

ACTIVITIES

Since the adoption of Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course (DOTS) strategy in all public facilities in 2002, the country has made significant progress in the battle against TB. The national performance for TB case detection and cure shows that the country is meeting the global targets.

However, in cities and municipalities, TB program performance is inconsistent; and while TB control continues to gain broader support and greater momentum, it needs to keep pace with the rate of infection.

IMPACT project activities are aligned with the principles of the United States Government’s Global Health Initiative, as well as the Government of the Philippines’ Universal Health Care agenda (Kalusugan Pangkalahatan).

RESULTS

• Mobilized 3,700 community volunteers to promote TB awareness and education among 27,000 individuals, which led 78 percent of the identified TB presumptive cases to seek diagnosis and appropriate treatment in health centers
• Improved access to TB diagnosis in access-poor areas through installation of 249 remote smearing stations run by trained informal laboratory workers in 17 provinces
• Scaled up TB case finding by engaging over 365 private hospitals, 4,067 private pharmacies, 177 jails and prisons, as well as work places, Indigenous Peoples, and Muslim religious leaders
• Helped ensure TB cases are cured through nearly 3,500 health workers and 700 midwives adequately prepared as treatment partners and supervisors of treatment partners, respectively
• Helped ensure availability of funds for core TB control activities through PhilHealth accreditation of 840 DOTS facilities and approval of 351 local policy issuances that appropriated a total of PhP57 million
• Helped ensure the quality of TB care through DOTS certification of 754 health facilities, and training of about 46,000 public and private health care providers on the components of the World Health Organization’s Stop TB strategy

GOAL

To reduce tuberculosis (TB) prevalence by 30 percent, achieve 85 percent case detection rate for all forms of TB, and 90 percent cure rate for new smear-positive cases in all participating sites by 2017 from 2010 baseline.

OBJECTIVES

• Strengthen demand for TB services through adoption of healthy behaviors within families
• Improve supply of TB services, including the availability and quality of public sector services and selective expansion of private sector providers
• Remove policy and systems barriers to support supply and demand for TB services