National Tuberculosis Control Centre (NTCC)

Background

National Tuberculosis Control Centre (NTCC) is the focal point of the National Tuberculosis Control Program. Tuberculosis Control Programme was launched by Government of Nepal almost six decades ago. In 1937 ‘Tokha Sanatorium’ situated on the north of Kathmandu city was established. The Central Chest Clinic (CCC) came into existence in 1951 with the facility of diagnosis and treatment services for the TB patients on domiciliary basis. Similarly, in 1965, TB Control Programme was systematically organized with tripartite agreement between Government of Nepal, WHO and UNICEF. Since then TB Control Programme started on a nationwide basis offering preventive measures such as BCG vaccination, case-findings and distribution of drugs.

Later Central Chest Clinic and TB Control Programme were amalgamated into one centre as National Tuberculosis Centre. As a result the National Tuberculosis Centre in Thimi, Bhaktapur at the central level and Regional Tuberculosis Centre (RTC) at the regional level in Pokhara were established in 1989 with the cooperation of Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Major role

National Tuberculosis Control Centre (NTCC) is the focal point of the NTP and responsible for formulating policies, strategy, planning, monitoring, and quality assurance.

Key functions

• Develop the National policies, strategies, standards, and guidelines on TB management.
• Support Provinces and sub-national levels for capacity building.
• Support planning, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of ending TB activities with concerned stakeholders and partners.
• Monitoring and supportive supervision of tuberculosis service delivery.
• Manage and advise on the procurement and distribution of TB drugs and supplies.
• Prepare standardized tools for recording and reporting, health education and training materials for TB.
• Analyse all reported TB data, produce reports and feedback to lower levels
• Plan and carry out capacity enhancement activities at all levels on TB management
• Coordinate with partner agencies.
• Serve as secretariat to the TB Technical working group; National Technical Working Group for Tuberculosis (TB TWG).
• Ensure and advocate for budget allocation for implementation of the program.
• Collaborate with other diseases control programs and centers like HIV, Diabetes, and RMNCAH for organizing effective cross-referral, monitoring and coordination.

Organization structure of National Tuberculosis Control Centre (NTCC)

Vision: To end the TB by 2030 and make Nepal free of TB by 2050.

Objectives Tuberculosis Control Programme

Objective 1: Increase case notification through improved health facility-based diagnosis; increase diagnosis among children (from 6% at baseline, to 10% of total cases by 2021); examination of household contacts and expanded diagnosis among vulnerable groups within the health service, such as PLHIV (from 179 cases at baseline to over 1,100 cases in 2020/21), and those with diabetes mellitus (DM).

Objective 2: Maintain the treatment success rate at 90% patients (all forms of TB) through to 2021

Objective 3: Provide DR diagnostic services for 50% of persons with presumptive DR TB by 2018 and 100% by 2021; successfully treat at least 75 % of the diagnosed DR patients

Objective 4: Further expand case finding by engaging providers for TB care from the public sector (beyond MoH), medical colleges, NGO sector, and private sector through results based financing (PPM) schemes, with formal engagements (signed MoUs) to notify TB cases.

Objective 5: Strengthen community systems for management, advocacy, support and rights for TB patients in order to create an enabling environment to detect & manage TB cases in 60% of all districts by 2018 and 100% by 2021

Objective 6: Contribute to health system strengthening through HR management and capacity development, financial management, infrastructures, procurement and supply management in TB

Objective 7: Develop a comprehensive TB Surveillance, Monitoring and Evaluation system

Objectives 8: To develop a plan for continuation of NTP services in the event of natural disaster or public health emergency.

Information was collected from various documents, reports and government publications. For more info please visit official website of NTCC.

Contact
National Tuberculosis Control Centre (NTCC)
Phone: +977-1-6630033+977-1-6630073
FAX: +977-1-6635986
Location: Thimi, Bhaktapur, Nepal

Publications and related documents

• Global Tuberculosis Report 2020
• National Tuberculosis Program Update in Nepal #WorldTBDay #EndTB
• National TB Prevalence Survey, 2018-19 Key findings
• World Tuberculosis Day 2020! It’s time to End TB!
• National Guideline on Drug Resistant TB Management 2019, Nepal
• National Tuberculosis Management Guideline 2019, Nepal
• Global Tuberculosis Report 2019: Latest status of the tuberculosis epidemic
• National TB Prevalence Survey, 2018-19 Key findings
• New WHO recommendations to prevent tuberculosis aim to save millions of lives
• World Health Organization (WHO) Information Note Tuberculosis and COVID-19
• World Tuberculosis Day 2020! It’s time to End TB!
• People-centred framework for tuberculosis programme planning and prioritization, User guide

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