KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation

About Us

KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation

KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation is an international non-profit organization dedicated to the fight against tuberculosis (TB), the first deadliest infectious disease in the world. KNCV is an international center of expertise for TB control that promotes effective, efficient, innovative and sustainable tuberculosis control strategies in a national and international context.

Background

The USAID Eliminate TB Project is a five-year USAID-funded project awarded to Management Sciences for Health (MSH) and its core partner KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation. The goal of the project is to reduce TB incidence and mortality to achieve End TB strategy milestones and targets by increasing the quality, access, utilization, and sustainability of TB services in Ethiopia. The project will support the Government of Ethiopia to target case detection based on prevalence; introduce highly sensitive and specific diagnostic and screening tools; and boost prevention and treatment for latent TB infection. Accordingly, through the project, the implementing partners will find and treat 484,540 new TB patients and 14,357 MDR-TB patients and achieve treatment success rates (TSRs) of at least 95% for drug-sensitive (DS)-TB and 85% for drug-resistant (DR)-TB and an LTBI treatment target of 450,000.

The End TB Strategy targets set for 2030 cannot be met without intensified research and development. Besides technological breakthroughs, innovations in programmatic implementation will significantly contribute meeting the End TB Strategy targets including the rapid decline in TB incidence rate. The USAID Eliminate TB Project has a significant research component. As part of main research, the project will integrate research questions that will identify and test alternative algorithms for TB screening, TB preventive Therapy (TPT) DOT model and effectiveness, frequency of administration for various TB prevalence levels, and LTBI for the general population. The project will also accelerate innovation and research agenda in Ethiopia including demonstrating a framework for elimination of TB in Ethiopia by 2050. The project will also determine the unit cost for elimination, social factors for TPT uptake, and positive and negative unintended effects of TPT. Interim results in the middle of the project lifetime and final results in the 5th year of the project will be shared in national and international forums.