Engagement of public and private medical facilities in tuberculosis care in Myanmar: contributions and trends over an eight-year period
Assesses whether Public-Private Mix activities can be scaled-up nationally and sustained over time
Abstract
Background
As part of the WHO End TB strategy, national tuberculosis (TB) programs increasingly aim to engage all private and public TB care providers. Engagement of communities, civil society organizations and public and private care provider is the second pillar of the End TB strategy. In Myanmar, this entails the public-public and public-private mix (PPM) approach. The public-public mix refers to public hospital TB services, with reporting to the national TB program (NTP). The public-private mix refers to private general practitioners providing TB services including TB diagnosis, treatment and reporting to NTP. The aim of this study was to assess whether PPM activities can be scaled-up nationally and can be sustained over time.
Methods
Using 2007–2014 aggregated program data, the authors collected information from NTP and non-NTP actors on 1) the number of TB cases detected and their relative contribution to the national case load; 2) the type of TB cases detected; 3) their treatment outcomes.
Conclusions
The contribution of non-NTP actors to TB detection at the national level increased over time, with the largest contribution by private practitioners involved in PPM. Treatment outcomes were fair. Findings confirm the role of PPM in national TB programs. To achieve the End TB targets, further expansion of PPM to engage all public and private medical facilities should be targeted.
This research was supported by the UK Department for International Development’s Operational Research Capacity Building Programme led by the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (The Union)
Citation
Nwe TT, Saw S, Win L Le, Mon MM, Griensven J Van, Zhou S, Chinnakali P, Shah S, Thein S, Aung ST. Engagement of public and private medical facilities in tuberculosis care in Myanmar : contributions and trends over an eight-year period. Infectious Diseases of poverty. 2017;6(1):123.