Workshop on Tuberculosis Services Accessibility - Zimbabwe, 05/01

21-22 May 2001
Harare, Zimbabwe

Dear Colleagues:

You are cordially being invited to attend this important Regional Workshop on Tuberculosis Services Accessibility in Southern Africa, to be held in Harare, Zimbabwe from 21 to 22 May 2001.

Tuberculosis being one of the most common killer disease before and present times once again is in the centre of attention of national health authorities, researchers as well as donor community as a reemerging phenomenon.

With the financial support from International Development and Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada the Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI) based in Harare has undertaken a study which has strong public health implications: to find out the determinants of access to health services by individuals to seek treatment, and to look into actions taken by health authorities to prevent the disease or provide timely and appropriate health care to the patients. To achieve maximum relevance of the study for Southern African Region four SADC countries were selected where Tuberculosis is a major public health problem especially in association with HIV/AIDS - RSA, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Research teams of the above mentioned countries have already completed the study and their individual reports have been consolidated by the BRTI co-ordination team. Some interesting results and based on them, useful recommendations are made. Time has come to share these with other researchers and public health workers in our countries. BRTI is therefore organizing a dissemination workshop to bring the study results to other researchers, decision-makers and other interested parties. The objectives of the workshop will also be to:

* Review the national, regional and global trends of Tuberculosis infection and its impact on the socio-economic development of African countries.
* Review the study results carried out by each participating country including country specific recommendations and discuss their relevance for other countries in the Region. * To review and determine common trends in participating countries regarding personal and health system related determinants of access to Tuberculosis services.
* In view of the results achieved, make recommendations to address challenges of Tuberculosis control in Southern Africa. * Make recommendations on the optimal use and dissemination of the results of the study among public health workers involved in Tuberculosis control as well as decision makers and other stakeholders.

Being people of the Africa Region countries where Tuberculosis is a major killer I believe your Ministry will wish to participate in the workshop by sending 1 or 2 participants who are involved in Tuberculosis control. Due to limited funding of this project unfortunately the workshop budget will only be able to sponsor a very limited number of delegates mainly from the SADC region. Please we would be grateful if you can register your interest in attending this workshop with the convener through contact details given below so that they may assist in sourcing funding to attend the workshop. However we hope your Ministry will seek funding from own sources or may approach other partners for support, such as WHO, which have institutional interest in TB control for any other additional participants.

The tentative venue of the workshop is the Holiday Inn, Harare. You can download the study background and provisional programme for the workshop from the AFRO-NETS server (46 kB) at: http://www.afronets.org/docs/tb-access.doc

On behalf of the local organizing committee I thank you for your consideration and will look forward to see your valuable contribution during the deliberations of the workshop.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. S. Chandiwana
Conference Convener & Principal Investigator of the Study Biomedical Research & Training Institute Centre for International Health & Policy 443 Grasmere Lane, Borrowdale
Harare, Zimbabwe
Tel: +263-4-870-404/5 or +263-11-409-911
Fax: +263-4-870-403
mailto:igha@icon.co.zw
or
mailto:Leolev@mweb.co.zw

-