Site level Program Management and Support

Clinical description

RR-/MDR-TB management team (clinical panel team)

All district hospitals need to establish a DR-TB management team to assist the smooth implementation of the DR-TB program and provide appropriate patient care. The DR-TB team should compose of at least one or more DR-TB clinicians, one or more DR-TB nurses, one laboratory technician, a district TB officer and a pharmacy technician.

The DR-TB clinical team is responsible for:

• Deciding on treatment initiation and starting regimen;
• Arranging social support for eligible patients;
• Defining treatment outcomes for DR-TB patients

68 National Tuberculosis Control Programme

• Providing technical support for treatment follow-up centres on a regular basis;
• Monitoring and managing the adverse effects of drugs;
• Conducting contact tracing and evaluation;
• Providing training to health care workers on DR-TB;
• Timely ordering of second-line and ancillary drugs.