Participation in TB REACH Webinar on, ‘Economic Evaluations of TB Active Case Finding Interventions’

On 4^th February 2021, BNMT was delighted to participate and present about our TB REACH wave 5 work in a webinar titled, ‘Economic Evaluations of TB Active Case Finding interventions’, hosted by McGill International TB Center in partnership with Stop TB Partnership. The webinar highlighted the potential of Active Case Finding (ACF) scale-up to improve efficiency of health systems in resource constrained countries, reduce patient costs and reach the undiagnosed TB patients in our communities. This event was attended by TB REACH grantees and researchers from all over the world.

In the webinar, IMPACT TB health economist Dr Noemia Siqueira and BNMT member Kritika Dixit jointly presented the findings of the health economic evaluation of TB REACH project implemented in Nepal in 2017 that compared costs incurred by TB patients diagnosed by either ACF or PCF patients in Pyuthan and Bardiya districts, which can be catastrophic for impoverished families. In the study, a cost analysis was developed by using the WHO patient cost tool to compare the socio-economic burden of TB in patients diagnosed through active case finding with the standard passive case finding approach (PCF).

The findings showed that the ACF strategy significantly reduced medical and non-medical costs and lost income during the pre-diagnosis period. Importantly, the ACF strategy also reduced the prevalence of catastrophic costs in the most vulnerable populations. Recruitment of local interviewers proved vital to overcome language and geographical barriers during this project. This work has been published in Infectious Diseases of Poverty and can be freely accessed online: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6889665/

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In the webinar, TB REACH grantees from India, Pakistan, Cambodia and Nepal shared their experiences of their respective projects. From Pakistan, Dr Hussain, (IDR Global Pakistan), presented the cost-effectiveness of an ACF model engaging the private healthcare sector to increase TB case. The study showed how crucial the involvement of the private sector and bidirectional partnerships are to end TB. Dr Garg, (Innovators in Health, India), shared experience showing the importance of community health workers to improve cost efficiency of ACF in the context of extreme poverty and a weak health system. From Cambodia, Mr Tuot, Khmer HIV/AIDS NGO Alliance, showed evidence that ACF reduces costs and averts disability adjusted life years.

Our sincere thanks to TB REACH for the invitation to attend this exciting seminar and share our work with our fellow researchers in TB around the world.

A video recording of the webinar is available here:

http://tbreach.paitbgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Cost-webinar_Feb4_recording.mp4