Dear Friends,
Greetings from the Prajnopaya Foundation. I am pleased to announce that our health care work in Bihar is continuing to assist a great many in need. We now have two general health clinics operating in Rajgir and Vaishali that provide free care to the surrounding villages. Our work in Tuberculosis Treatment and Prevention is continuing as well, with plans for an increase in patient detection and treatment ramping up this October.
I am also happy to announce a new and very promising collaboration that the Prajnopaya Foundation is undertaking in TB treatment. Starting in September of this year, we will be combining the strengths of Prajnopaya and a new partner, Operation ASHA, to launch a TB program that focuses specifically on urban slums in India. It is these locations – where high population densities, extreme poverty, and dysfunctional TB treatment programs – lead not only to a significant threat for new TB cases, but also to the development and spread of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB).
Through this collaboration we will be implementing a promising new community-based TB treatment model that has shown great success in the urban slums of New Delhi. The new approach has increased detection of new patients by 80% and reduced default rates down to 1% of all cases. By leveraging the combined experience of Prajnopaya Foundation and Operation ASHA in TB detection and treatment, we are looking to rapidly scale-up the number of TB programs and save thousands of lives. A description of the plans for our first collaborative program in Moradabad, India can be found at: http://www.prajnopaya.org/index.php/projects/tb-care/moradabad.
Through arrangements made with the National TB control program of the Indian government, we can potentially secure sustained and complete funding for each new TB treatment center after 2 years of successful operation. This is a tremendous opportunity to ensure the long-term sustainability of our efforts. However, the first two years of each new center need to be supported by our own funds. For this, we are seeking your kind and essential contributions.
We feel this is a terrific opportunity to make a significant and direct impact in TB control at a very critical point in time. Millions still die from TB each year. The burden is especially high in urban slums that have long suffered from neglect in government-provided services. The national TB programs are often no different. When a program doesn’t work, it results in low detection rates, high numbers of patient drop-outs, increased resistance to TB medication, and the development of dangerous drug-resistant strains of the disease.
With your help, we can change this situation. By working within the community and establishing a successful incentive program, our new model has shown very promising results in these most challenging areas. Please take a look at the details of the approach in our program description http://www.prajnopaya.org/index.php/projects/tb-care/moradabad.
Thank you for your kind support.
Scott Kennedy
Director, Prajnopaya Foundation
Click here to donate towards this cause.