Fact Sheet: HEAL TB - Controlling Multi-Drug Resistant TB
While TB is a national and international priority, Ethiopia’s high TB rates were not declining rapidly in the 2000s. From 2011-16, USAID funded a project to support the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) to dramatically improve TB services and outcomes in Oromia and Amhara Regions. Its formal name is “Help Ethiopia Address Low TB Performance,” or HEAL-TB. HEAL TB assisted FMOH to find and treat TB cases among children, adults, and special populations; expand multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) diagnosis and treatment; integrate TB and HIV services; improve laboratory diagnostics and reporting; and strengthen health-system expertise, leadership and management. The project scaled up to make these services accessible to nearly 55 million people--more than half the country’s population. Thanks to intense capacity-building and mentorship, the expertise and health-systems improvements now reside in Ethiopia’s public health system, so that FMOH can continue progress against TB throughout the country. HEAL TB has presented its operational research in 20 academic journal articles and more than 60 presentations at international conferences.