Tuberculosis Elimination - The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) requests Cooperative Agreement funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to complement the state’s tuberculosis (TB) prevention and control efforts in the following program areas: TB surveillance and case/ presumed case oversight including monitoring for TB case rates, trends, and outbreaks; treatment, nurse case management including ensuring treatment adherence; contact investigation of active TB cases; drug susceptibility testing and genotyping; cluster detection and outbreak response, domestic evaluation of immigrants and refugees for TB; HIV testing of TB cases; medical consultation; program evaluation; targeted testing and treatment within high burden communities; and human resource development. This project will use the following six TB prevention and control strategies to guide the work plan of the MDH TB Control Program: 1. Diagnosis and treatment of persons with TB disease. 2. Conduct contact investigations for infectious TB cases. 3. Test and treat populations at higher risk for TB and LTBI. 4. Program planning, monitoring, evaluation, and improvement. 5. Surveillance. 6. Human Resource Development (HRD) and Partnerships. 7. Public Health Laboratory Strengthening. The purpose of this project is to help public health, medical professionals, and public policy makers better existing strategies to control TB disease in Minnesota as well as implement new strategies to reduce the burden of tuberculosis infection in our most vulnerable populations: new refugees and immigrants; people living with other co-morbidities including diabetes, HIV, and substance use issues; and our populations living in congregate settings including those experiencing homelessness, the incarcerated, and those in residential/long term care facilities. Through this project period, the MDH TB Prevention and Control Program will work toward reducing TB mortality and morbidity, fulfilling its obligations as a TB high-burden jurisdiction, and working to achieve CDC’s short, intermediate, and long-term outcomes.
