Afghanistan National Tuberculosis Control Programme

Afghanistan's national tuberculosis program, initiated by the Ministry of Public Health in 1954 and known today as the National Tuberculosis Control Programme, or NTP. The directly observed treatment short course strategy, known as DOTS, was introduced in 1997 but was not rolled out nationwide until 2002 because of the country's continuing security situation, after which the program was integrated into Afghanistan's Basic Package of Health Services and Essential Package of Hospital Services delivered through the primary and secondary health system. Afghanistan remains among the World Health Organization's top 22 tuberculosis high-burden countries, recording roughly 189 new cases for every 100,000 people, about 56,000 new cases a year, with more than 2,600 health facilities now providing DOTS services and 883 laboratories carrying out sputum microscopy nationwide, and the program has continued to draw international support, including a WHO and Government of Japan project to secure anti-tuberculosis medicine supplies and strengthen the national drug management system.