mHealth Strategy for TB Eradication

I. Topic Selection, Concept, and Vision: Tuberculosis Eradication

Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by a Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It usually affects the lungs.

The mode of transmission of TB is through air droplet released through cough or sneeze from a person with lung TB. After inhalation and though already infected, a person may stay in the latent phase (asymptomatic and non-transmitting) of the disease even for the rest of his/ her life.

TB is a treatable and curable disease.[1] TB-DOTS is the course of treatment usually prescribed to patients. Under this, four (to five) antimicrobial drugs will be given to patients on a six-month standard period with ongoing support and supervision from trained healthcare providers.Several studies show different percentages of non-compliance on various parts of the globe (18%[2] and 55%[3] in two studies we reviewed), but the common contributing factors were inadequate knowledge, social and behavioral factors, and health care facilities and services.

Strict adherence to the aforementioned prescribed course of treatment is pivotal as failure to do so may just lead to the worsening of the patient’s prognosis because of high chances of TB bacteria that are still alive may become resistant to those drugs. TB that is resistant to drugs is harder and more expensive to treat.

B. Description of solution components

Directly addressing the specific factors contributing to the problem gives us a firm grasp on what kind of strategy we need to apply to solve it.