Guidelines for implementing collaborative TB and HIV programme activities.

The main aim of the guidelines is to enable the central units of national TB and HIV/AIDS programmes to support districts to plan coordinate and implement collaborative TB/HIV activities. The guidelines are intended for countries with either an overlapping TB and HIV epidemic or where there is an increasing HIV rate which may fuel the TB epidemic. The WHO “Strategic Framework to Reduce the Burden of TB/HIV" provides the evidence base for these guidelines. The guidelines are designed to implement the interventions as described in this framework. The guidelines reflect lessons learned from TB/HIV field sites including ProTEST with experience from comprehensive TB/HIV health services and interventions. The guidelines are structured in line with the main theme of putting these interventions into action: what to implement how to implement it and by whom. The health situation is urgent and requires a move away from small scale often costly and time-limited pilot projects to phased implementation of collaborative TB/HIV activities. Phased implementation will build on experience learned form ProTEST pilot sites. Human and financial constraints make phased implementation necessary. (excerpt)