PICTS (Programme to Increase the Catchment of Tuberculosis presumptiveS)

The PICTS in Myanmar, established in 2012, focuses on significantly increasing the identification of TB cases. This initiative, coordinated by The Union Office in Myanmar, utilises a community-based group, primarily made up of individuals who have been affected by TB themselves, healthcare workers, and community volunteers. These volunteers, over 200 strong, play a crucial role in the community-driven effort to fight TB by providing health education, identifying presumptive TB cases, and supporting patients through the entire diagnosis and treatment process, finding presumptive TB cases and clients requiring TB preventive treatments through contact investigation.

Volunteers help facilitate TB care by transporting sputum samples, providing counselling, assisting in TB diagnosis and treatment taking, providing DOT supervision, offering outreach activity for treatment interruption, facilitating in providing monetary or in-kind support by The Union, making the programme more relatable and effective. By involving the community, PICTS has not only improved TB case detection and case holding but also helped in preventing its spread through family and community contact tracing of TB index cases. Household contacts and close contacts of TB index cases are actively screened by the volunteers to identify presumptive TB cases and eligible clients for TB preventive treatment.

The programme’s community-focused approach has been transformative in a challenging healthcare environment like Myanmar’s, where access to health services is limited in some areas. With support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and USAID HIV/TB AIS activity, PICTS has made a significant impact, assisting over 8000 people with access to completed TB treatment.