Let’s Stop Tuberculosis in the Donetsk Oblast

Implementation years: 2007–2014

To combat an epidemic of tuberculosis at regional level, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation launched in 2007 a project named Let’s Stop Tuberculosis in the Donetsk Oblast. The project’s mission was to reduce the rate of morbidity and mortality caused by tuberculosis in the region. The project was aimed to make modern, effective methods of identifying and diagnosing this disease accessible for all residents. In just a few years, the project demonstrated astonishing results, and by 2011, it allowed to reduce the tuberculosis-caused mortality rate in the Donetsk Oblast by 42%. For the duration of this project, the region’s morbidity rate dropped by 26.5%, and the number of people contracting tuberculosis for the first time decreased from 4582 in 2006 to 3231 in 2011.

The Foundation purchased modern laboratory equipment for the fast and accurate diagnostics of tuberculosis. Safe and comfortable conditions for patients and medical staff were created at four specialized medical institutions in the Donetsk Oblast. 3163 persons (medical and nonmedical personnel) underwent training in international and national standards of diagnosing and treating tuberculosis at a training center based on a regional tuberculosis clinic.

In August 2014, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation used, for the first time in Ukraine, an outpatient model of treating patients with tuberculosis in Kramatorsk. Six times a week, a mobile crew comprising a medical nurse, a doctor and a driver would visit patients at home or work, bringing anti-tuberculosis drugs and performing the necessary medical procedures and manipulations.

The project’s achievements are now used by a number of tuberculosis dispensaries (specialized treatment centers) in Ukraine.