Adopting an equitable, person-centered strategy to eliminate TB in a post-COVID-19 era
The following is a summary of “Ending tuberculosis in a post-COVID-19 world: a person-centred, equity-oriented approach,” published in the February 2023 issue of Infectious Diseases by Ryckman, et al.
Systems of care for infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, have been disturbed by the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing fundamental disparities that have long plagued efforts to battle these diseases. Many people are more susceptible to tuberculosis as a result of the interplay between individual and community-level health inequalities that arise as a result of these inequities. Effective measures taken against tuberculosis (and other infectious diseases) must consider these facts.
However, existing tuberculosis interventions are not typically created from the perspectives of impacted individuals and fail to address structural causes of health disparities. They outline a person-centered, equity-focused response that would locate and center on populations hit hardest by inequities, adapt interventions to how inequities exacerbate tuberculosis, and tackle the underlying causes.
Below, they outline the strategy’s four basic tenets (data collection, program design, implementation, and sustainability). We then provide examples of how organizations on different levels might work together to change existing processes to include these factors. The need to restructure health systems in a more person-centered, equity-oriented way post-COVID-19 is highlighted by the fact that such an approach could achieve more substantial, sustained, and equitable reductions in tuberculosis burden at the community level.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S147330992200500X
Source:
Physician’s Weekly
