Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the world’s most deadly infectious diseases. Until the emergence of COVID-19, the bacterium that causes TB was described as, “the most destructive pathogen on the planet,” killing more than 4,300 people each day. Despite being preventable, treatable, and curable, this ancient disease continues to kill more people each year than HIV and malaria combined. While a wide range of evidence-based and scientific interventions have been developed to combat TB, due to continued underinvestment and low global prioritization (compared to other diseases), TB persists, resulting in close to 11 million TB cases and 1.3 million deaths annually.
This Implementation Approach describes priorities and activities under each Objective of the USAID Tuberculosis Strategy. It provides a brief overview and details of the interventions that have to be in place in order to achieve the Goals and Objectives of the Strategy. It is organized according to the Reach, Cure, Prevent, Innovate, and Sustain components of the Strategy, with a separate section describing operational principles. It describes What and How to implement priority TB activities and provides links to the best practices, tools, guidelines and publications. It should be noted that where there is overlap across the strategy components, specific activities may appear more than once. For example, contact investigation is an important activity under both Reach and Prevent, with different aims for each component. Therefore, TB Contact Investigation (TBCI) appears in both sections with a description of why it is relevant to each component.
This is a public version of the Implementation Approach. This document will allow readers to better understand principles and priorities for the USAID TB Program globally and assist National TB Programs to develop and implement innovative and comprehensive TB approaches, with the aim to achieve global and national TB targets and goals.