Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
BackgroundIn response to the persistent TB challenge, the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) of India, formerly known as the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), set a strategic goal to eliminate the nation's TB burden by 2025, five years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goals. In recognition of this challenge, the Indian Government launched the Sub-national Certification initiative in 2021, fostering competition among states and districts to attain TB-free status and offering recognition and incentives to the best-performing entities. Leveraging verification methods such as TB scores, treatment data, and community-level incidence estimation, this study seeks to provide a comprehensive view of the landscape.Materials & methodsThe study targeted healthcare providers encompassing doctors and chemists employed in both public and private sectors. A non-probability sampling technique, specifically, the convenient sampling method, was utilized. Two Nominal Group Technique (NGT) sessions were conducted. The first NGT comprised 8 healthcare providers, while the second NGT included 10 healthcare providers, while 14 participants were interviewed for KII.ResultsUtilizing the nominal group technique, the following results were derived: approximately 20 % of patients opt for treatment in the private sector, and pharmacies notifying TB cases comprise around 70 % of the cases. Additionally, most participants concurred that there has been a reduction in TB cases over recent years.ConclusionStudy's findings shed light on healthcare providers' perspectives on various facets of TB control, including incidence trends, patient preferences, drug choices, and compliance.
Nagaraja et al. (Thu,) studied this question.