Devex: USAID’s TB strategy as seen from Kyrgyzstan
“…USAID’s TB strategy worldwide … is twofold: focusing on local capacity building in order to ultimately rely on local solutions and resources; as well as funding research and development to move to a purely oral treatment regimen in concordance with the latest World Health Organization guidelines. In Kyrgyzstan and other post-Soviet states, USAID’s strategy to defeat TB includes cutting health care expenditures — in part by putting an end to interminable hospital stays. What this looks like on the ground is shortened treatment regimens for drug-resistant TB, and limiting hospital stays to two months or until patients are no longer contagious, with treatment continued on an outpatient basis and supplemented with support and follow-up by social workers…” (Ravindran, 4/25).