WISCONSIN 2025-2029 TB PREVENTION AND CONTROL PROJECT NARRATIVE
PROJECT ABSTRACT SUMMARY
The purpose of the CDC Cooperative Agreement funding is to assist the current efforts of state and local tuberculosis (TB) programs in Wisconsin to prevent, control and eventually eliminate TB in Wisconsin and the United States. Funds will augment state and local investments in TB prevention and control activities including development of human resources through improved training, education, communications, and information dissemination and strengthening laboratory capacity to ensure that timely and reliable TB laboratory services are available to health care providers and TB controllers.
Wisconsin is a low TB incidence state with a rate of less than one case per 100,000 people. Most people with TB in Wisconsin are non-U.S.-born or had direct contact to someone with infectious TB. Despite the falling TB incidence rate in Wisconsin, the complexity of TB cases has increased, with a prevalence of multi-drug resistant TB over twice that of the national average, co-infections with HIV on par with national average, and significant co-morbidities such as diabetes, organ transplantation, and renal failure. Due in part to low TB rates and turnover of experienced health care personnel, there is a lack of TB expertise in both the private and public sectors.
The focus of the Wisconsin TB Program (WTBP) over the next five years is to reverse the current trend of increased incidence and reduce TB morbidity, mortality, and disparities in Wisconsin by addressing the following needs: for improved TB case finding and management; for improved LTBI treatment through targeted testing and LTBI enhanced surveillance data; for improved contact investigation procedures; for improved quality, access, and dissemination of TB epidemiology and program performance data; for maintenance and strengthening of programmatic and laboratory capacity and services WTBP will continue to provide TB surveillance, expert consultation, and outbreak response. WTBP will continue to partner with WSLH to provide high quality TB laboratory services.
Expected outcomes from this funding include: decreases in TB incidence; increases in patients completing treatment within 12 months; increases in TB cases with HIV and drug susceptibility testing results; increases in LTBI testing and treatment completion rates of those who are recommended for treatment; increases in accuracy and completeness of surveillance, genotyping, and whole-genome sequencing data; improvement in turnaround times for specimen receipt and laboratory testing; progress towards implementing the Wisconsin TB elimination plan; and increases in sharing of best practices with TB stakeholders via Wisconsin Treatment Advisory Group (WI TAG). Outcomes will be achieved in alignment with current National TB Program Objectives and Performance Targets (NTIP) and National TB Laboratory Turnaround Time Performance Targets.