United states agency for international development, Agency

Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Central TB Division (CTD), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) entitled: 'Understanding TB within Community Structures: Integrating with the most vulnerable'.Held on the eve of World TB Day (March 24), the webinar focused on strengthening community engagement at the grassroots.The webinar engaged experts in the public health, policy, program implementation, as well as a TB Champion to discuss the need to engage established community leaders and structures and tap into their local leadership to drive and sustain TB control efforts at the grassroots.Community structures such as self-help groups, youth associations, labour unions, and faith-based orgzations, have immense potential to collectivize efforts and initiatives in order to conduct activities that strengthen TB awareness in the community, improve the recognition of symptoms, and promote appropriate health-seeking behaviour.KHPT has been working with community structures in Karnataka and Telangana since 2019 with USAID support and found community structures referred 2730 persons with symptoms in the July 2019- March 2020 period, of which 2230 were tested and 237 were found to be positive, indicating that community structures are increasingly making quality referrals for testing based on their knowledge of TB.Due to their significant influence as orgsations with social welfare as part of their mandate, they have the ability to help TB patients in a variety of ways, starting from one-on-one counselling and patient visits to mobilizing resources to support them with monetary and/or nutrition support through the treatment period.The panellists included Dr Raghuram Rao, Deputy Director, CTD, MoHFW; Dr Rajeev Gowda, Parliamentarian; Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership; Dr Reuben Swamickan, Division Chief, Tuberculosis and Infectious Diseases, USAID; Dr Dalbir Singh, President, Global Coalition against TB; Mohan HL, CEO, KHPT; and Chandan BK, a TB champion.The panel discussion revolved around strengthening community engagement at the grassroots through policy and programmatic guidance for community structures."We have a renewed mission to take forward the TB agenda to end TB in 2025 through a Jan Andolan. It's going to be very challenging, but we hope for the support of all partners, especially the communities. We are banking on our community, our community structures and civil society orgzations, to work in very targeted areas to reach key vulnerable populations. I'm sure with the support of everybody, we'll achieve our goals," said Dr Raghuram Rao, Deputy Director, CTD in his keynote address."One of the things we know, in the context of healthcare, is that for all the efforts that the govt. has taken to pull people out of poverty, it is one major illness that can pull them back. Multidimensional approaches to address TB must be a national priority and community-related interventions can make a huge difference to turn the tide," said Dr Rajeev Gowda, Parliamentarian."Having community health workers and civil society as an entry point for information, for demystifying wrong statements, to convince people to get diagnosed and treated is very important not just for COVID and TB, but any other pandemic coming," said Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership."To be protected for the future, we can empower such networks and give them responsibility, tools, information and remuneration so they can be communicators and bring down walls between people and the public health sector.""The larger objective of affordable, equitable and universal healthcare for TB Care only be achieved by building synergy between the government apparatus, local governments and society and deeper engagement of local communities," said Dr Dalbir Singh, President, Global Coalition Against TB."Many national governments and global institutions have already started investing heavily in strengthening systems through decentralization. I am sure we would not like to overlook this imperative.""The absence of active community participation and patient-centric approaches for vulnerable populations has resulted in missing TB cases and a high proportion of negative treatment outcomes. The saying 'nothing for us, without us' works for TB very well, when it comes to community. They are good at asking questions. If we provide them a structure and solutions, they're going to help themselves, other patients and the community at large, and make a difference," said Dr Reuben Swamickan, Division Chief, Tuberculosis and Infectious Diseases, USAID, in his remarks."KHPT's approach empowers community structures, builds their perspectives, provides tools and motivates their leaders to integrate TB into their existing welfare mandate leveraging their existing capacities. This helps them actively engage with patients' issues in their own unique contexts and sustain efforts against the spread of TB, paving the way for increased ownership of the 'End TB' agenda among communities," said Mohan HL, CEO, KHPT.For more information on KHPT, please visit r contact us at kmunit@khpt.orgThis story is provided by BusinessWire India. will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (/BusinessWire India)( With inputs from ANI )Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

United States Agency For International DevelopmentFOLLOW

United states agency for international development, Latest News

Washington, July 20 The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has recommended wearing of masks in schools for everyone ... ...

With the number of cases of COVID-19 surging across the county in the second wave of the pandemic, the Government of Karnataka is introducing a city-wide sewage surveillance system in Bangalore that will help officials track the virus at an early sta ...

Getting published in the press is something many people think is out of reach. We often look at publications like Forbes and Business Insider as reserved for only the 'special few' who got lucky and somehow made it to the top. ...

Ned Price, US Department of State spokesperson in a press briefing on Tuesday (local time) said that Washington is working closely with India to identify continued, emerging needs in the COVID-19 crisis. ...

In wake of the worsening COVID-19 situation in India, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced the departures of three additional COVID-19 relief supply aircraft carrying life-saving oxygen, oxygen supplies, and other ...

COVIDActionCollab has successfully delivered over 17 lakh services over the past year to support vulnerable communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially starting out as a collaborative focused on providing relief to the worst-affected com ...

In Marketing, every occasion calls for communication and connecting with the target group. But for marketing communication agency - bubble; the reason is a milestone being celebrated. This year marks the 10th anniversary of Bubble Communication, an a ...

Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Central TB Division (CTD), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) entitled: 'Understanding T ...