National center for HIV, viral hepatitis, STD and TB prevention tuberculosis elimination and laboratory cooperative agreement - the tennessee tuberculosis (TB) elimination program (ttbep) provides…

National center for HIV, viral hepatitis, STD and TB prevention tuberculosis elimination and laboratory cooperative agreement - the tennessee tuberculosis (TB) elimination program (ttbep) provides programmatic oversight, facilitates clinical consultations, and provides education and training resources to regional TB programs throughout tennessee. The ttbep utilizes a portion of federal funding to facilitate staffing and program activities to four (4) metropolitan TB programs through contractual arrangements. The regional TB programs provide TB services (screening, testing, treatment, and case management, etc.) to residents and visitors of all 95 counties in tennessee. The mission of the ttbep is to eliminate TB in tennessee. Elimination of TB in tennessee is predicated on the implementation of three (3) priority strategies for controlling and preventing TB, as recommended by the advisory council for the elimination of tuberculosis (acet) that include: (1) identifying and fully treating persons who have active TB disease; (2) finding and screening persons who are contacts to TB cases to determine if they are infected with mycobacterium tuberculosis or have active TB, and providing appropriate treatment; and (3) targeting populations at high-risk for infection and disease to detect infected persons and provide TB infection (TBI) therapy when appropriate to prevent progression to active TB. The ttbep is committed to progressing toward the national targets set forth in the national TB indicators project and strive to develop evaluation strategies to address those indicators not being met. In addition, the ttbep is committed to identifying, screening, testing, and treating those individuals at high risk for exposure to mycobacterium tuberculosis, those at high risk for progression to active TB disease if exposed, and those populations experiencing health disparities and disproportionately affected by TB disease and TB infection (TBI). The ttbep is applying for funding under the tuberculosis elimination and laboratory cooperative agreement CDC-RFA-PS-25-0003 to assist with addressing the strategies and implementing the activities identified in this application. Funding for prevention and control (p & c) and for laboratory strengthening will allow for continued and new activities that be measured by evaluation of progress toward short-term and intermediate outcomes outlined in the funding announcement. Progress toward these short-term and intermediate outcomes will lead to a decreased TB incidence overall and among those populations at higher risk and those disproportionately affected by TB disease and TB infection.