The Republic of Belarus brings about Tremendous Changes in TB care

The Republic of Belarus has made reforms to upgrade TB care and also control it to international levels. They have seen a positive impact with these reforms and are seeing fewer TB deaths and newer cases.

A 24 year old named Aleksandr who had lost his father with tuberculosis from the Vitebsk region of Belarus had learned that he had tuberculosis when he started a new job in 2010. He finished his standard TB drug regimen, but unfortunately fell ill once more. He was diagnosed with multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and was admitted to the hospital for yet another round of treatment.

MD-TB is a deadly and hard to treat form of TB and is resistant to most powerful TB drugs. Belarus is one of the 27 countires globally to bear the burden of MDR-TB.

The country began implementing reforms in order to upgrade TB care and also to control it to international levels. The reforms were much in the line with WHO Stop TB recommendations. The reforms were focused on improving laboratory services in order to detect all different forms of TB. Also, adoption of international treatment protocols in hospitals and clinics, including better monitoring of patient data in order to assess needs for medicines and services.

The initial results are showing that the reforms are having a positive impact and there are less TB deaths and a drop in new cases of TB.

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