Meetings and events
Regional meetings
Ninth Intercountry Meeting of National
Managers of the Tuberculosis Control Programmes in the Eastern
Mediterranean Region
(Lahore,
Pakistan, 26-29 April 2004)
Regional Director's message
In
the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
DR
HUSSEIN A. GEZAIRY
REGIONAL
DIRECTOR
WHO
EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN REGION
to
the
MEETING
OF MANAGERS OF THE NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS PROGRAMME
IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN REGION
Lahore,
Pakistan, 26-29 April 2004
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the ninth meeting of the National Managers of TB Control Programme in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. First I wish to extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for its kind concurrence to host this meeting and to H. E. Maj.-Gen. (R) Muhammad Aslam, Director General of the Federal Ministry of Health for honouring us with his presence today to inaugurate this meeting.
Tuberculosis remains a very high priority on the global public health agenda with an apparent urgency to accelerate action in order to reach the global target sets for 2005 which is to detect 70% of the estimated smear positive cases of Tuberculosis and to successfully treat at least 85% of them.
We acknowledge that this is a massive challenge and undertaking, to be carried out in one and a half year to achieve the targets set for the programme. On the other hand, we should take pride in the fact that DOTS implementation is one of the critical steps necessary for attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that are being cherished and pursued by the entire world.
The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean has drawn up a DOTS implementation strategic plan that will assist member states of the region to attain the set global targets by the end of 2005. Through this strategy, the DOTS acceleration efforts eagerly pursued by Pakistan and Afghanistan will be enhanced until a nationwide DOTS coverage in the public health sector known as DOTS ALL OVER is achieved along with a process aiming to integrate all the necessary quality features of the programme. Once DOTS ALL OVER is achieved, we will assist these Governments in making DOTS more comprehensive by involving other institutions including those belonging to the private sector. This process is currently being carried out in all the other EMRO countries that have achieved the target of DOTS ALL OVER in order to ensure the delivery of high quality DOTS services to all TB patients regardless of whether the origin of their service relates to the pubic or private health sector.
Through its technical collaboration with member states the Regional Office has carried out a large number of technical support interventions aimed at enhancing the scope, pace and the quality of programme implementation.
Some of these interventions are exemplified as follows:
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Revision of TB control estimates in six countries of the region namely Egypt, Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Syrian Arab Republic and Tunisia. This exercise has led to the correct estimation of the case detection rates. As a result of this exercise, other countries of the region were advised to strengthen their recording and reporting system in order to benefit from this technical application. This has led to the development of a nominal electronic district based recording and reporting system which is currently being piloted in several countries of the region.
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Provision of technical and financial support to the International Federation of Medical Students Associations in conducting a study on teaching TB in medical schools in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan and Tunisia. The results of this study are going to be presented in this meeting in the hope that this will provide the necessary impetus for integrating the TB-DOTS strategy into the curricula of medical schools of the region.
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Evaluation of the capacity of the health care system in the comprehensive and successful implementation of the DOTS/TB Control strategy in public, private and public-private mix settings. This evaluation study was carried out in twelve member states of the region, while its outcome will be used for the development of a comprehensive regional framework for DOTS implementation.
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Conduction of assessment surveys in the TB Network Laboratories during 2003 in eleven member states of the region, the findings of which will help us in improving the TB diagnostic facilities through the development of standard guidelines for quality assurance of the DOTS programme in the region.
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Promotion of operational research by sponsoring several research proposals each year through the Regional Tropical Diseases Research Small Grants Scheme that include pertinent topics such as delays analysis, drug resistance surveys, evaluating community role in enhancing case detection, and gender perspectives in Tuberculosis.
In the current pace of development of TB control in the region, our main endeavor should focus on the establishment of normative functions that include the settings of guidelines for quality assurance activities incorporating the development of Quality Assurance Systems for diagnostic laboratories, surveillance and the strategic framework for comprehensive DOTS implementation in the region.
We should also act collectively to devise national strategies and norms for human resource development of the TB control programmes supported by meticulously prepared training facilities and instruments with a strong technical library support.
This brief overview illustrates how the Regional Office in close partnership with the WHO HQ Stop TB Team is offering sustained technical support to the EMR member states through these and a range of other technical activities such as the preparation of sound and comprehensive country proposals for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, the Global Drug Facility, the Fund for Innovative DOTS expansion local interventions to Stop TB and networking facilitation with other potential donors.
Against this backdrop, the Regional office is organizing this inter-country meeting at the outset of the current biennium of our joint programme collaboration in order to enable national programmes to coordinate their interventions with the available resources and potential WHO technical support.
We are confident that through your active engagement throughout the proceedings of this meeting, you will achieve the set objectives by enhancing the pace and quality of programme implementation in the region.
On its part, the World Health Organization both at the headquarters and regional levels shall make every effort to augment TB control activities in the region with the confidence that these efforts will culminate in reaching the global targets set for 2005 and contribute effectively to the country-based MDGs.
I wish you every success in your deliberations and hope that the outcome of this meeting will further improve our regional and country level TB control strategies and actions.
Thank you
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