Tuberculosis South Africa Project (TBSAP)

The Challenge

Provided technical assistance to the Government of South Africa to reduce the burden of tuberculosis (TB) and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the country.

Overview and Objectives

TBSAP, which is task order (TO-001) under the Technical Assistance Support Contract 4, Africa (TASC4 – Africa), built upon interventions and achievements from the USAID TB CARE II project (2010-2020) and prior TB Program South Africa project (2009-2015).

TB CARE II activities included supporting the South Africa National Department of Health’s TB prevention and control efforts, working closely with national and provincial partners to close identified gap areas, and further developing sustainable systems that can carry forward long-term improvements in TB and drug-resistant TB diagnosis, care, and treatment services.

Core objectives for this project were:

• Reduce TB infections
• Increase the sustainability of effective TB response systems
• Improve care and treatment of vulnerable populations

Achievements

• Reduced test turnaround time: TBSAP made a variety of detection, testing, and treatment improvements, including reducing the overall turnaround time from sputum collection to treatment in hospital settings from 4.3 days to one day in 2018 in 14 hospitals in Gauteng Province. This success is due in part to implementation of the FAST approach.
• Created a mobile health app to support TB testing and treatment: TBSAP developed and used the ConnecTB mobile health application for recording and reporting patient data during directly observed treatment support visits to TB and MDR-TB patients. The app was launched in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Health District in June 2015. Within nine months of initiation, loss to follow-up rates in supported areas were much lower than rates in the greater Mandela Bay District area.