This project aims to identify barriers and enablers to accessing TB services, and describe and understand the health seeking practices and experiences of people diagnosed with TB and those people who have been in contact with the person with TB and are at risk of disease.

The project is being led by Burnet Institute with collaborators from Monash University, the Western Provincial Health Office PNG, Daru General Hospital, World Vision International, PNG Institute of Medical Research and the National Department of Health PNG.

This project is funded by a seed grant from the Tuberculosis Centre of Research Excellence (TB-CRE), which supports research aimed to improve coordination between and strengthen existing research initiatives on public health interventions, epidemiological and basic science approaches to TB control.

The overall outcome of this project will be to generate knowledge that will inform the development and strengthening of locally relevant strategies, tools and interventions to the TB response in South Fly District:

1. Knowledge about factors hindering TB screening, diagnosis, treatment uptake and prevention that will inform approaches to improve TB services and care 

2. Enhanced understanding of the social context of TB services and care that will inform programmatic
management to improve treatment outcomes and reduce the human and financial costs of TB. 

3. Development of locally relevant and context-specific policy and practice solutions to the challenges identified in effective utilisation of TB services

Household surveys and semi-structured interviews will be conducted with participants who are on or who have completed DR-TB treatment, and people who have not been treated, to better understand patient experiences in a local setting, and adapt disease care and prevention to the needs of patients in Daru.

Timeline

2017-2018