• Ukraine

Ukraine is missing more than 25% of its 39,000 people estimated to have developed drug-sensitive TB in 2016. During the same year, more than 51% of its 21,000 people estimated to have developed drug-resistant TB were also missed by the health system.

To find more of its missing people with TB, Ukraine is implementing a four-prong approach. The country seeks to increase coverage of GeneXpert MTB/RIF and roll-out to the lowest service delivery level, with the overall objective of expanding access to people with presumptive TB with GeneXpert as first diagnostic test.

Ukraine is also strengthening the peripheral TB diagnostic units and oversight role of the central TB reference laboratory to ensure that all presumptive TB patients referred by the community are getting tested. These efforts will also contribute to the expansion of GeneXpert availability and testing to make this test the initial diagnostic test for all presumptive TB patients for improved case detection. Ukraine is also making efforts towards improved quality of TB diagnosis through establishing a fully functional national reference lab within the National TB control programme (NTP), and thereby expanding the use of molecular line probe assays for more second-line DR-TB diagnosis.

In addition, Ukraine is expanding the civil society involvement in TB care and support, including for reducing stigma and discrimination. Trainings for healthcare providers on human rights and medical ethics as well as TB case finding among vulnerable populations (e.g. injecting drug users, ex-prisoners, homeless people, internally displaced people, etc.) are conducted. The country is also seeking to improve treatment adherence of prisoners with TB during the entire treatment duration during and after their detention. Moreover, TB diagnosis among adults and children living with HIV is planned to be strengthened, such as through the roll-out of innovative diagnostics (e.g. LF-LAM).