AUTHOR=Vatsyayan Vindhya , Pattery Theresa , Sayyad Khasim , Williams Jason , Pal Arnab , Panibatla Vikas , Khanna Ashwani 

TITLE=“DOST” Model to Link and Support Drug Resistant TB Patients From Private Sector: An Experience From Delhi, India

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.835055

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2022.835055

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=1) Background: The National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) has quite successfully involved the private sector for referral of presumptive drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) patients for molecular testing and referral for DR-TB management. There was a challenge as all the referred patients were not reaching the facilities. A ‘DOST’ intervention model was implemented to strengthen the patient care pathway. We conducted this study to describe the patient care cascade, the clinico-demographic characteristics of patients linked to the treatment and to estimate the mean turn-around time for drug-resistant TB care services.  (2) Methods: It is a cross-sectional study conducted in New Delhi during the period July 2019-December 2020 under programmatic settings (3) Results: A total of 9,331 patients were subjected to the CB-NAAT test and 382 (4%) were found to be resistant for rifampicin and 231(76%) were initiated on treatment in the public sector under NTEP; (4) Conclusions: The DOST intervention model developed to link the DR-TB patients from the private sector to the public sector  DR-TB centres is found to be efficient and effective.