Thailand - Stop TB Partnership

• Maintain attention to reducing the risk of MDR-TB, including by
– Ensuring capacity to conduct culture and susceptibility testing countrywide;
– Conducting targeted surveillance among high-risk groups such as migrants
and prisoners;
– Monitoring drug quality and applying to the Green Light Committee for quality-assured
second-line drugs.
• Expand efforts to involve a broader range of stakeholders in TB policy. Recovered
TB patients, HIV/AIDS NGOs, and community health activists should have a
greater voice in TB policy development and implementation.
• Develop and implement a media outreach plan to raise public awareness about TB,
including by
– Establishing and staffing a specialized media and public relations department
to promote NTP policies and activities;
– Producing regular updates in media-friendly language on the TB situation in
Thailand to encourage and facilitate quality television, radio, and newspaper
reporting at the national, regional, and community levels;
– Cultivating relationships with health journalists by offering training seminars
and organizing regular press events to present current issues such as progress
on achieving TB control targets, results of latest TB research efforts, and global
TB developments.
• Support community-led awareness-raising activities, including by
– Developing and disseminating accurate, context-sensitive, and nontechnical
educational materials about TB and TB/HIV;
– Implementing targeted awareness-raising and stigma-reduction activities for
vulnerable groups and communities, including women, migrants and ethnic
minorities;
– Researching and identifying “lessons learned” from the treatment literacy
activities undertaken by NGOs working on HIV/AIDS;
– Supporting HIV/AIDS NGOs to take on TB awareness raising and treatment
literacy activities;
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TB POLICY IN THAILAND