International Consultants' Training Course - GHDonline

Outline of the Training course
Introduction: Transmission of tuberculosis (TB) in health care and congregate
settings is a major challenge to TB control and public health. However, many
countries lack the institutional capacity to adequately address TB infection control.
Recently, the importance of appropriate TB infection control has become
increasingly acknowledged due to reports of an extensively drug resistant TB (XDR-
TB) outbreak in South Africa which predominantly affected people living with
HIV/AIDS. This outbreak had a very high case-fatality rate, included both patients
and health care workers and was likely preventable had there been appropriate
infection control measures in place. Nonetheless, at present, only a handful of
qualified international and national experts are available to provide technical
assistance in TB infection control training, planning, implementation and monitoring.
Multiple international TB control partners in a coalition with TBCAP— including the
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/American Thoracic Society, the
KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, the World Health Organization, the International
Union against TB and Lung Disease, Management Sciences for Health, Family Health
International, Japan Anti-TB Association (JATA) among others— have acknowledged
the importance of capacity development in TB infection control in developing
countries.
To this end, KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, of behalf of TBCAP organized a training
course in Gaborone, Botswana, 18-22 February 2008 to increase the number of
qualified consultants available to conduct TB infection control assessments and to
develop infection control plans, particularly for countries with a high burden of TB,
high rates of HIV or high rates of MDR-TB.
Criteria for selection and enrollment into this course:
• Working experience as a consultant or willingness to work as a consultant in
health related issues with particular emphasis on TB, HIV and/or airborne
infections
• Availability to participate in a one-week mission as an on-thejob/complementary
training with an international TB infection control
consultant (within one year after the training course)
• Be available to conduct two field missions per year and provide requisite offsite
follow-up
The course focused on teaching following skills:
o How to conduct a health facility TB infection control risk assessment
o How to develop an infection control plan
o How to implement the hierarchy of infection control measures
o How to conduct missions as an international consultant (preparation,
cultural aspects and safety issues)
Course Coordinator: Dr Masoud Dara (KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation)
Facilitators: Paul Jensen (CDC/USA), Masoud Dara (KNCV), Rose Pray (WHO-HQ),
Nancy Jensen (CDC/USA on leave), Cristi Popa (Institute Pneumolog Romania/Free
Lancer), Scano Fabio (WHO-HQ)
Secretaries/logistics: Orlanda Graca (KNCV), Susan Makani (Free lancer)
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