In order to strengthen the capacity of National TB Control Program (NTP) staff in the area of electronic surveillance at BMU/district level, the program has embarked on an initiative to launch web-based TB surveillance system (WEB TBS) in collaboration with WHO. The framework would cover all the components of the stop TB strategy including drug sensitive and drug resistance TB in the district. It also covers the private and public sector not affiliated to the national program. Dr. Ejaz Qadeer, the National Manager NTP described the switching over to electronic surveillance system down to the district level as a revolutionary move.
Dr. Amal Bassili and Dr. Amal Ghalal from the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean facilitated the 3-day workshop that ended on Saturday aimed at enabling the NTP to successfully implement this system in a phased manner starting from a pilot in 10 selected districts from all provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory.
Dr Amal Bassili who is Medical Officer for Stop TB and focal point for tropical diseases research in the WHO Regional Office highlighted the importance of monitoring and evaluation alongside the benefits of the new web-based system for surveillance. The 3-day master trainer’s workshop was characterized by a hands-on approach in a highly participatory manner.
The participants of this workshop that concluded on World TB Day 2012 comprised of very senior core officers of the National TB Control Program at national and provincial level, monitoring and evaluation officers and district TB coordinators of the ten districts. The new system will enable adequate monitoring and evaluation through the implementation of a well defined plan incorporating a framework of the goal, service delivery areas and activities using various indicators to measure the performance and progress achieved.
In his concluding remarks, Dr Ghulam Nabi Kazi of WHO Pakistan lauded the efforts of the NTP and WHO-EMRO in launching this laudable initiative that will add to the program efficiency and instill further transparency into the system by enabling access to data in a very simple format. He hoped that the web TBS could be implemented in ten districts from 1st April 2012 to be evaluated during October 2012, following which the remaining districts will be taken up and the system made functional across the board in Pakistan by April 2013.
Dr Kazi also recounted the massive efforts and phenomenal progress made within the realm of TB Control over the last 11 years ever since the Islamabad Declaration was adopted on World TB Day 2001. It may be recalled that the declaration called upon all stakeholders to regard Tuberculosis as a national emergency to be addressed on a war footing.