The Russian Federation has one of the highest rates of tuberculosis (TB) and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the world. Partners In Health (PIH) has been working on TB and MDR-TB in Russia since 1998. In 2006, PIH and Tomsk Oblast Tuberculosis Services launched a new project, the “Sputnik” Initiative, a model of patient-centered accompaniment in Tomsk Oblast, Russia, focused on providing daily comprehensive care to patients at the greatest risk of defaulting from treatment.

Over the last several years, the policy to prevent and treat drug-resistant TB has improved substantially—so much so that most TB programs have introduced modern molecular diagnosis and the programmatic treatment of MDR-TB. Yet while the landscape on policy has changed dramatically, most drug-resistant patients go undiagnosed and untreated.