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Project Overview

Sep 2019
Project Overview

Since 2016, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Tuberculosis (TB) South Africa Project has provided technical support to the South African TB Program at national, provincial and district levels. Working closely with the National Department of Health (NDoH), the USAID TB South Africa Project currently supports 14 districts in six provinces, works directly with more than 30 local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations and faith-based organizations and engages private providers and other private sector partners for important programmatic gains.

Reducing TB infections in South Africa

Aug 2019
Reducing TB infections in South Africa

The USAID TB South Africa project works extensively in advocacy, communication and social mobilization (ACSM) at all levels of implementation. These activities include infection prevention and control (IPC) screening campaigns – which have reached over 40,000 people and have identified 256 new TB cases, the My TB Survival Toolkit adherence support package, which has been delivered to over 200 patients, public service announcements in over 160 locations, and commemoration of major health days like World AIDS Day, World Diabetes Day and World TB Day, which have cumulatively led to the screening of nearly 23,000 people and diagnosis of 44 new TB cases.

Successes in increasing capacity, strengthening service delivery and improving data systems in South Africa

Aug 2019
Successes in increasing capacity, strengthening service delivery and improving data systems in South Africa

The USAID TB South Africa Project engages the South African government on multiple levels, starting at the facility level and propagating through the district, provincial and national levels. The project works to identify gaps in the TB care cascade, primarily through the establishment of QI clusters at the sub-district level. Currently, 32 quality improvement teams support 191 facilities to support the development and monitoring of facility-level quality improvement plans. Regular cluster meetings have helped identify key gaps within the understanding of data, oversight of data capturers and TB screening quality. 

Innovations in Community-Based Care and Strengthening Public-Private Partnerships

Aug 2019
Innovations in Community-Based Care and Strengthening Public-Private Partnerships

The USAID TB South Africa Project’s Small Grants program engages local NGOs at the grassroots level to find missing TB patients, to engage patients in supportive care and to improve overall patient outcomes. As the graph shows, the supportive NGO model, which works to provide patients with daily treatment supporters who further engage patients in care, improved outcomes among DR-TB patients in Nelson Mandela Bay Metro district in the Eastern Cape Province. Treatment success rate was uniformly higher in the project sample compared to the district patients. Further, as the model continued to be implemented in 2016, treatment success rates strengthened accordingly within the project. Overall, the small grants component has screened 215,293 people through Advocacy, Communications and Social Mobilization (ACSM) activities, 50,311 adult contacts and 4,867 child contacts to date. Additionally, the grants program alone has started 1,014 patients on treatment through ACSM activities, 827 adult contacts and 160 child contacts. Additionally, the grants component has led to 688 children under five years of age being initiated on isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT). 

USAID Tuberculosis South Africa Project Brief

Jul 2019
USAID Tuberculosis South Africa Project Brief

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health concern. South Africa is among thirty high TB burden coun-tries that together contribute 87 per cent of the world’s TB burden. The disease also stands as the leading cause of death in the country, particularly for men. TB accounted for the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent worldwide in 2017. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the national TB incidence to be 567/100,000 population in 2017. In the same year South Africa notified 227,224 cases and achieved a case detection rate of 71 per cent. To improve patient retention rates for patients with chronically managed conditions, including TB and TB/HIV co-infected patients, the Government of South Africa launched the National Adherence Guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures for TB Management.

URC’s Commitment to Support USAID’s New TB Business Model, the “Global Accelerator to End Tuberculosis” in South Africa

May 2019
USAID TB South Africa Project Achievements URC’s Commitment to Support USAID’s New TB Business Model, the “Global Accelerator to End Tuberculosis” in South Africa

University Research Company (URC) is a global health and development firm with over 53 years of experience in implementing clinical service delivery, systems strengthening, and quality improvement activities. With projects in over 45 countries, URC applies worldwide experience to approach these projects, understanding that work must consider global best practices while remaining locally-specific and contextually appropriate.