World TB Day: Raising TB Awareness Online

World TB Day, observed annually on March 24th, aims to raise public awareness about the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic and ongoing efforts to eradicate it. The USAID HIV/AIDS Agency, Information and Services (AIS) Activity led by Community Partners International (CPI) conducted a series of online campaigns with local partners in Myanmar themed “Yes! We Can End TB.” This year’s objectives include enhancing public understanding of TB within local communities, facilitating case finding, promoting timely treatment of TB, and encouraging community participation in World TB Day initiatives.

In early March, the AIS Activity launched a chatbot on the End TB Together Facebook page. This chatbot provides comprehensive information on TB, covering diagnosis, treatment, TB preventive therapy (TPT), and drug-resistant strains.

The AIS Activity also conducted online engagement campaigns through the End TB Together Facebook page. On March 24th, the page’s audience was invited to add a World TB Day frame to their Facebook profile picture for a chance to win a prize. More than 400 people participated, and 15 won a prize.

The AIS Activity also promoted a World TB Day photo challenge campaign through the End TB Together Facebook page. Participants took photos featuring the pledge “Take TPT to Prevent TB” in their local language and publicly shared their photos on Facebook tagging two friends and including the hashtags #TB, #WorldTBDay, #YesWeCanEndTB, and EndTBTogether.

Through these engaging online activities, the AIS Activity encouraged communities across Myanmar to take proactive steps in understanding, preventing, and treating TB. These efforts not only provide individuals with crucial knowledge but also encourage collective action and amplify the resounding theme, “Yes! We Can End TB.”

The USAID HIV/TB Agency, Information and Services (AIS) Activity aims to achieve HIV epidemic control by ensuring 95 percent of people living with HIV in Burma are aware of their status, 95 percent of those identified as positive are on antiretroviral treatment, and 95 percent of those on treatment are virally suppressed. It also aims to achieve a Burma free from TB by reaching every person with TB, curing those in need of treatment, and preventing the spread of disease and new infections. It is funded by PEPFAR and the Global Accelerator to End TB through USAID.

World TB Day Campaign Highlights Awareness to Help End TB

World TB Day, an annual commemoration on March 24th, is a pivotal occasion to spotlight global efforts to eliminate Tuberculosis (TB) and foster awareness. It commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes TB. On World TB Day, various organizations, agencies, and communities come together to educate and raise public awareness about the global impact of TB, the challenges in diagnosis and treatment, and the importance of prevention measures to end TB.

The day before World TB Day, the USAID HIV/TB Agency, Information and Services (AIS) Activity, in collaboration with the Myanmar Anti-TB Association (MATA) and Karen Baptist Convention (KBC), organized in-person events to raise public awareness of TB in local communities and strengthen efforts to end TB.

A diverse crowd of around 300 people gathered at the KBC Hospital in Yangon, Myanmar, to participate in World TB Day activities ranging from health awareness sessions to an interactive “Spin and Win” game.

In a keynote speech, Dr. Kyaw Phyo Naing, Deputy Chief of Party of the AIS Activity, underscored the importance of awareness in combating TB: “TB is curable and also preventable,” he emphasized. “By raising awareness about TB, individuals are more inclined to seek consultation, leading to increased case detection. Treating more cases reduces transmission and prevents the spread to others. I urge everyone to detect symptoms early and seek prompt treatment. Together, we can end TB.”

Central to the event was the colorful TB “spin and win” wheel, offering a fun and interactive way for participants to engage with the topic. Before spinning the wheel, participants attended health awareness sessions where they learned about TB. Afterward, they spun the wheel and answered questions that tested their TB knowledge and reinforced key messages. Winners received prizes with a TB-related message, and TB information pamphlets with a hotline number for free TB diagnoses and links to additional resources.

“I enjoyed playing the ‘spin the wheel’ game,” said participant Wai Lin. “It tested my understanding of TB, and won a prize. It’s a good way to raise awareness. The pamphlet and hotline details are useful. I can share them with others who couldn’t attend the event”

The impact of the World TB Day campaign extended beyond the event, as photos and messages from the event were shared on the End TB Together Facebook page with hashtags such as #WorldTBDay, #YesWeCanEndTB, and #EndTBTogether.

The AIS Activity used the occasion of the World TB Day event to offer free TB screenings to participants. All participants underwent an initial assessment for symptoms, and more than 220 were screened using a digital chest X-ray. Fourteen presumptive TB cases were identified and referred to TB centers to receive specialized care. In addition to raising awareness, this initiative offered tangible early TB detection and treatment opportunities.

An App to Accelerate TB Screening

To address gaps in TB case detection, the AIS Activity promoted an innovative chatbot and hotline service called CareConnect at World TB Day events. Partnering with Population Services International (PSI) and the Shwe Ohh pharmacy (a private commercial pharmacy), 7,000 CareConnect flyers were distributed across Yangon. These flyers featured the CareConnect QR code that connects users to TB screening resources. By scanning the QR code, individuals can connect directly with care providers and facilitate early diagnosis and treatment.

Collaborative Efforts to Raise TB Awareness

The AIS Activity also partnered with Foodpanda, a prominent food and grocery delivery service in Myanmar, to raise TB awareness. Foodpanda’s 600 riders in Yangon distributed around 6,000 TB information pamphlets with their deliveries across the city. The riders also wore sleeves bearing the TB information hotline number. This powerful collaboration expanded the reach of TB messaging on World TB Day.

In Myanmar, the AIS Activity is implementing programmatic and technical innovations to scale up HIV services, reach 95-95-95 prevention, testing, and treatment objectives, and achieve TB-free Myanmar. The AIS Activity supports efforts to scale up TB services to end TB as a public health threat in Myanmar. Through World TB Day activities, the AIS Activity raised TB awareness and expanded TB screening initiatives, supporting global efforts to end TB.

World TB Day: Quizzing the People of Yangon

To mark World TB Day, the “End TB Together” Facebook page went out on the streets of Yangon, Myanmar, to quiz the public about their knowledge of tuberculosis (TB) symptoms, transmission risks and treatment. Find out how they did!

The theme of this year’s World TB Day is “Yes! We can end TB.” TB is a bacterial infection spread through tiny droplets from the coughs and sneezes of an infected person. It is one of the world’s deadliest diseases but can be cured with proper treatment. In 2022, 10.6 million people fell ill with TB and 1.3 million people died of the disease. In recent years, there has been a worrying increase in drug-resistant TB.

Myanmar is one of 30 countries identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having a high burden of TB, HIV-associated TB, and TB drug resistance. The WHO estimates that the number of people who had TB in Myanmar rose by more than a third from 194,000 in 2021 to 257,000 in 2022. Estimated deaths from TB in Myanmar also rose nearly 40% from 36,000 in 2021 to nearly 50,000 in 2022. According to the National TB Prevalence Survey (2018), the Yangon Region has the highest TB burden nationally.

World TB Day is an opportunity to accelerate action to end TB. Crucial to these efforts are public awareness and access to timely, affordable health care. Civil society organizations play a vital role in Myanmar and worldwide in raising awareness of TB, identifying suspected cases, and connecting people to care.

Bubble Tea and TB: Foodpanda Myanmar Delivers TB Messages in Innovative Link-up with Community Partners International

As Foodpanda riders weave through the streets of Yangon, Myanmar, they’re not just bringing noodles, bubble tea, and other tasty food and drinks to their customers. They’re also delivering important messages about diagnosing and treating tuberculosis (TB). Since World TB Day (March 24), more than 1,000 Foodpanda riders across the city have been wearing special shirts with the message, “If you’ve been coughing for two weeks or more, test for TB at your nearest clinic”, emblazoned on the back in Burmese.

The shirt and the message are part of an awareness campaign to “End TB Together” supported by Foodpanda in partnership with Community Partners International (CPI).

TB is a bacterial infection, spread through tiny droplets from the coughs and sneezes of an infected person. It is a serious disease and a very real threat to public health in Myanmar but can be cured with proper treatment. Myanmar is one of 30 countries identified by the World Health Organization {WHO) as having a high burden of TB, HIV-associated TB, and TB drug resistance. The WHO estimates that 194,000 people had TB in Myanmar in 2021, and more than 36,000 people died of the disease. And, according to the National TB Prevalence Survey (2018), Yangon Region has the highest TB burden nationally.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, TB was the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent worldwide. As the pandemic disrupted health services, TB prevention activities fell back. As a result, the number of cases identified in Myanmar and worldwide fell in 2020, not because there were fewer of them, but because health systems couldn’t sustain case-finding activities. In 2021, case notifications began to climb again to pre-pandemic levels in much of the world. But, in Myanmar, they continued to fall, from 105,380 in 2020 to 65,125 in 2021. These figures indicate that many thousands of TB cases remain undiagnosed and untreated in the Myanmar population.

Making an estimated 18,000 journeys each day in Yangon, Foodpanda’s fleet of riders are a familiar sight on the city’s roads. The TB prevention message that the riders carry on their shirts is visible to potentially hundreds of thousands of drivers, passengers, and pedestrians each day as they ferry deliveries to customers. To reinforce the message on their shirts, the drivers also distributed TB information pamphlets to as many as 35,000 customers in the week following World TB Day. And 50,000 pamphlets have been distributed to Foodpanda’s network of vendors in Yangon to share with walk-in customers.

The shirts and pamphlets include a hotline, 0988 044 1080, that people can call between 8 am and 4 pm, Monday to Friday, to find out where they can access free TB diagnosis and treatment. The campaign will also feature media interviews, articles, and talk show appearances to further spread awareness about TB, and diagnosis and treatment options, to communities across Myanmar.

This link-up between Foodpanda and Community Partners International offers an innovative and powerful way to bring crucial public health messaging about TB to Yangon’s residents. By raising awareness and offering practical support, the campaign will help diagnose and treat more TB cases, and reduce the burden of TB across Myanmar.

World TB Day: Raising TB Awareness Online