Papua New Guinea National Tuberculosis Program

Papua New Guinea's national tuberculosis control effort, which has strengthened its surveillance systems over time even as the country continues to carry one of the highest tuberculosis prevalence rates in the world, with around 30,000 new cases reported each year. Case notifications rose sharply and consistently from 6,184 cases, or 93 per 100,000 population, in 2008 to 28,598 cases, or 359 per 100,000 population, in 2014, before stabilizing at a similarly high level, 28,244 cases or 333 per 100,000 population, by 2016, a trend analysts attribute partly to improved case detection and reporting alongside genuine disease burden. Recognized weaknesses in the program include a low rate of population screening, a high proportion of pulmonary cases recorded without sputum test results, and a low treatment success rate, and the National Tuberculosis Program has worked with international partners, including the Burnet Institute, the TB Alliance, the Australian Government and the World Health Organization, to introduce a shortened drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment regimen that cuts total treatment time to six months and has improved treatment success rates.