Launching of the project “Improving the health status of the Romanian population through increased tuberculosis control”

On 12 February 2015 it took place the press conference for launching the project “Improving the health status of the Romanian population through increased tuberculosis control”.

The event took place in Bucharest, at Minerva Hotel.

The speakers were representatives of the Ministry of Health, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway and “Marius Nasta” Institute of Pulmonology, which highlighted the need of strengthening the TB control in Romania and the relevance of the project in the context of national and European efforts to fight this disease.

At the conference participated also representatives of the World Health Organization – the Romania Office, the Ministry of Public Finances, the Embassy of the United States of America, several institutions and non-governmental organizations active in the health area, as well as representatives of the mass media.

Modern MDR/XDR TB diagnosis equipment and second-line anti-TB drugs

The funds necessary for the implementation of the project “Îmbunătățirea stării de sănătate a populației din România, prin creșterea controlului tuberculozei” (The Improvement of the health of the Romanian population through enhanced tuberculosis control) for the period August-December 2014 have been transferred to the Romanian partners in November 2014, and, by the end of December 2014, 91% of these funds had already been spent for the purchase of medicines.

The implementation pace of this project is very rapid. The medicines for the treatment of patients with multidrug-resistant and extensively resistant tuberculosis are essential and we cannot cut any corners in terms of quality when the lives of patients are in our hands. We make efforts every day to find the best solutions to deliver the results promised in this project.” Silvia Asandi, Director of the Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation, project partner, in charge with medicine procurement.

In December 2014, the first batch of medicines for 200 of the 1000 patients who will be treated within the project had already been delivered, in parallel with the payment for a new batch of medicines that will ensure the treatment of 550 MDR/XDR TB patients.

Also in December, as a result of the fruitful collaboration between the Marius Nasta Institute and the RAA Foundation, the procurement procedures were launched for rapid diagnosis equipment and consumables (GeneXpert, MGIT and LPA).

So far, the assessment of the national database of the National Tuberculosis Control Programme has also been completed, and priorities have been established for the necessary changes, in line with the World Health Organisation recommendations.

An equally important step for the progress of the project is the identification by the Centre for Health Policies and Services (CPSS) of the vulnerable communities where activities are to be conducted for information-education-communication and for the detection of TB cases among the poor populations with limited access to health services. For these communities, the next step is to develop information programmes and materials concerning the transmission, prevention, TB symptoms and access to primary medical care.

The project is moving forward and – which is very reassuring – the rapid diagnosis and support services for the patients and affected community have already begun to be materialized, as a result of a successful partnership between the government sector and the civil society.

Tuberculosis in Romania

Each year, tuberculosis (TB) makes million of victims in the world, out of which a few tens of thousands only in Romania. And this in the context in which the general population only heard about the illness and tends to consider it an eradicated problem, an illness of the past century.

“Is still there tuberculosis in the 21^st century?”

Yes, there is, and at present it became a universal public health priority. The data of the World Health Organization of October 2014 shows that more than one third of the total world population is carrier of TB bacilli, and one in 10 carrier persons becomes sick. 9 million persons became sick only in 2013, while 1.5 million died, meaning almost 4109 deaths daily. At global level, it is estimated that in 2013, 480,000 people developed drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB).

Nonetheless, due to the sustained efforts for the rapid diagnostic and proper and directly observed treatment, at global level, the death rate caused by TB decreased with 45% between 1993 and 2013. About 37 million lives were saved between 2000 and 2013, due to early diagnostic and correct treatment. 86% of the people who developed TB and were under treatment in 2012 were successfully treated.

In Romania, the desease kills 1100 persons each year and affects other 16,000 yearly, most of them among the young and active population. Romania is the country of the European Union with the highest number of TB cases (about 20% of the TB patients in the EU are from Romania). Although the treatment success rate is about 86% at new cases, Romania has one of the lowest multidrug resistant TB curing rate in world, having an annual increase of the infectious patients pool.

Still, Romania is not an isolated case. The World Health Organization mentions, among the challenges in the area of tuberculosis control in the European Union, the need of reform in the health sector, which to include a higher engagement of the primary health care in TB control and a still limited political and financial engagement of the governments in TB control.