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Matthew Burman, Vladyslav Nikolayevskyy, Irina Kontsevaya, Barbara Molina-Moya, Olena Rzhepishevska, Lorenzo Guglielmetti, Tackling the MDR-TB epidemic in Ukraine: every little helps … and much more needed, Journal of Public Health, Volume 40, Issue 1, March 2018, Pages 210–211, https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdx014
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Dear Editor,
The 2016 TBnet Academy, a meeting to support collaboration and learning about tuberculosis (TB) amongst students, doctors and researchers from across Europe, was held in Odessa, Ukraine. We witnessed first-hand the commitment of local healthcare professionals to tackle the increasing multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) burden. Ukraine is one of the WHO's 30 high-burden countries for MDR-TB.1 In 2014, 8000 patients started on MDR-TB treatment, accounting for 22% of all new TB cases.1
We write this letter to share the progress being made locally, to highlight the difficulties being faced, and to call for ever stronger international collaboration to tackle the MDR-TB epidemic.
Access to key laboratory diagnostics has improved significantly within Ukraine. Since 2011 rapid liquid culture (BACTEC MGIT, Becton Dickinson, USA) and molecular tools (GeneXpert, Cepheid, USA), procured by the Global Fund, are being systematically introduced across the country. Ukraine has developed a national electronic TB register and international funding has improved the coverage of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/TB co-infected patients. Local initiatives have led to the allocation of regional funds for the renovation of TB facilities and have also developed new international collaborations (http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/108387_en.html).