A new publication co-published by the CORE Group and The Union provides a framework for integrating childhood TB care with community health services, one of the key goals of the Roadmap for Childhood TB published last year.
“This is a very important step towards implementing the Roadmap”, says Dr Anne Detjen, a childhood TB specialist based at The Union North America Office in New York, who was a lead author for both documents.
A Framework for Integrating Childhood TB into Community-based Child Health Care outlines community-based strategies for integrating childhood TB activities with other maternal and child health care services through existing diagnosis and management algorithms. Such activities include prevention, identification of children with presumptive TB and referral to higher-level facilities. It is designed for decision makers, programme managers and officials at the global policy and national Ministry of Health (MOH) levels who can (in collaboration with national TB programmes) make changes to country-specific child health frameworks. It will also be useful to those in the field who can implement interventions directly.
The aim is to emphasise the importance of childhood TB, stimulate discussion and move toward early integration of childhood TB into other maternal and child care activities.
The framework was developed by the TB and community child health working groups at CORE Group, of which The Union is an associate organisation. The CORE Group helps NGOs and governments effectively reach the community level, integrate community strategies into the national health plan and respond to new and emerging health issues that arise so that preventable deaths from diseases such as pneumonia and measles can be reduced.
Download the Framework:
Learn more about the CORE Group: www.coregroup.org
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