Russia project history

1998 - Based on our experience in Peru, as well as on international advocacy for improved treatment of MDR-TB, PIH is asked to provide consultation and services for prisoners and civilians with MDR-TB.

2000 - PIH begins collaborating with local authorities in Tomsk on a DOTS-Plus project for treatment of MDR-TB and assumes primary clinical responsibility for the first on-the-ground MDR-TB project in Russia.

2001 - PIH begins providing technical and financial support.

2003 - After accumulating five years of experience in Tomsk, PIH expands its responsibilities to provide training for healthcare professionals and to advocate for institutional change at the federal level. Drawing on financial support from the Eli Lilly and Co. Foundation, PIH’s training program for MDR-TB program managers and physicians plays an integral role in catalyzing change within the Russian TB services.

2004 - PIH Boston assists our Tomsk partners in securing a five-year $10.8 million grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of TB and MDR-TB in Tomsk. PIH assumes responsibility as Principal Recipient for this grant, providing management and oversight.

2005 - Training activities accelerate, with a clinical and epidemiological workshop for high-ranking officials from the Russian medical system that lays the groundwork for a series of five comprehensive training sessions on management of MDR-TB to cover the entire country in 2006 and 2007.

2006 - Working in collaboration with the Russian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, PIH conducts three comprehensive training sessions on management of MDR-TB. By the end of the year, PIH-led sessions have trained 215 physicians, representing three quarters of the territory of the Russian Federation.

PIH training has now reached 215 physicians working with MDR-TB in three-quarters of the territory of the Russian Federation.