The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

3134.0: Monday, November 17, 2003 - 11:30 AM

Abstract #64095

Towards improved monitoring of national tuberculosis programs: Lessons from the field

Stephanie Mullen, DrPH1, Erin Eckert, PhD2, Annelies Van Rie, MD, PhD3, Kate Macintyre, PhD4, Charlotte Colvin, MA4, Cheri Vincent, MSPH5, Irawan Kosasih, MD4, and Susan Hassig, DrPH6. (1) Measure Evaluation Project, JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc., 1616 N. Fort Myer Drive, 11th Floor, Arlington, VA 22209, 703-528-7474, stephanie_mullen@jsi.com, (2) Measure Evaluation Project, Macro International Inc., 11785 Beltsville Dr., Suite 300, Calverton, MD 20705, (3) Epidemology Deptartment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2104H McGavran-Greenberg Hall, CB37435, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, (4) International Health, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, 1440 Canel Street, Suite 2200, New Orleans, LA 70112, (5) Bureau for Global Health, U.S. Agency for International Development, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20523, (6) Department of International Health and Development, Tulane University, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, 1440 Canal Street, Suite 2200, New Orleans, LA 70112

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading infectious disease killers in the world. Over 2 million people die each year from TB. The breakdown in health services, the spread of HIV/AIDS and the emergence of multi-drug resistant TB are contributing to the worsening impact of this disease, especially on those who can least afford to seek treatment.

Despite a long and impressive history of TB surveillance, much remains unknown about which programs work and why. Surveillance systems gather valuable information on outcomes and disease status within health systems but these outcome indicators tell managers little about which inputs are most important to the outcomes; nor which elements of the program are functioning well, and which are weak.

This purpose of this paper is to present a framework for monitoring and evaluation of TB programs. Its intent is to better understand the processes which lead to programmatic success. The framework is based on findings from field visits to South Africa, Honduras, Russia and the Philippines that examined M&E systems used by national tuberculosis programs in a variety of epidemiologic settings. The framework consists of core indicators that are important for all national tuberculosis programs to measure, including political commitment, TB burden, diagnosis and treatment as well as program level indicators to measure program progress or specific situations, such as TB/HIV, training, drug supply and laboratories. The proposed M&E framework will allow national program managers to track program effectiveness and make necessary adjustments to achieve success.

Learning Objectives:

Keywords: Tuberculosis, Indicators

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Malaria and Tuberculosis

The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA