PEOPLE CENTRED TB CARE
People-centred TB care is essential to ending TB. Although TB is preventable and curable, millions of people face barriers to accessing and completing treatment. Fragmented services, financial hardship, stigma and inadequate social support can prevent people from receiving the continuous, coordinated care they need.
People affected by TB often face substantial costs, even where treatment is free. Transport expenses, nutritional needs and loss of income can place enormous pressure on households. Health services must be organised around people's lives, protecting their dignity, livelihoods and ability to remain in care.
This briefing outlines what effective people-centred TB care looks like and the policy changes needed to deliver it. It focuses on accessible and coordinated services, shorter treatment regimens, community-based support, social protection and stronger parliamentary oversight to ensure that everyone affected by TB can access quality care without financial hardship.
EXPERT PANEL
MR FRANCISCO OLIVARES
Francisco Olivares, a Chilean journalist. He lives in the city of Arica, in the territory of the Aymara people. He used to work as head of communications at the Arica and Parinacota Health Service, an agency under the Ministry of Health. He is a member of the organisation ‘Juntos por la Vida’ (Together for Life) for people living with HIV, a partner of the TB Coalition of the Americas, and the civil society focal point in Chile for the Parliamentary TB Front. He is part of the team behind the TB and HIV news portal corresponsalesclave.org
MR RONAOLD RUNGOYI
Ronald Rungoyi is a drug-resistant TB survivor and advocate for TB-affected communities in Zimbabwe. He currently serves as Chairperson of Stop TB Partnership Zimbabwe, working to ensure that the experiences, concerns and priorities of people affected by TB are heard.
Alongside his advocacy, Ronald is a broadcaster and documentary filmmaker with a focus on environmental, health and community development issues. Through his work, he uses storytelling to amplify community voices and bring greater attention to the realities faced by people affected by TB.
MS CAROL NAWANI NYIRENDA
Carol Nawina Nyirenda is a leading TB advocate and public health leader from Zambia, with extensive experience advancing community-led responses to TB and HIV. She is Executive Director of CITAMplus, where she works to strengthen community systems and promote the meaningful participation of people affected by TB in policy and decision-making. She is also the Focal Point Person for the Zambia Parliamentary Caucus on TB.
Drawing on her lived experience with TB and HIV, Carol connects grassroots perspectives with national and global health policy. She currently represents affected communities on the Unitaid Executive Board and has previously held governance roles with the Stop TB Partnership, the Global Fund, The Union and TB People. Her work focuses on community voice, accountability, equity and people-centred approaches to TB.
Dr Riziki Kisonga is an infectious diseases specialist with more than 16 years of experience in TB, TB/HIV and other communicable and non-communicable diseases. He currently serves as Programme Manager of Tanzania’s National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Programme at the Ministry of Health, overseeing national efforts to prevent and control TB and leprosy.
He previously spent seven years in management at Tanzania’s National Center for Drug-resistant TB, designated a national Center of Excellence in TB. His experience also includes clinical trials, operational research and the development of multidisciplinary research teams. Dr Kisonga has served as a lead or co-investigator on several research projects and contributed to national and international research networks and technical working groups, while also providing mentorship to junior researchers.
DR RIZIKI KISONGA
MR MAXINE LUNGA
Maxime Lunga is a TB survivor and community advocate from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He serves as Coordinator of Stop TB RDC and National Secretary of Club des Amis Damien, an organisation of TB survivors. For more than 20 years, he has worked to mobilise TB-affected communities, train community health workers and strengthen engagement between communities and other stakeholders.
Maxime works closely with the National TB Programme and has contributed to TB guidelines, national strategic plans and community resources. As a Community, Rights and Gender expert, he has led or supported assessments and action plans on CRG and TB stigma in the DRC, Benin and Gabon, as well as TB key and vulnerable population size estimation work in the DRC and Togo.
PROF ROVINA RUSLAMI
A Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Padjadjaran in Bandung, Indonesia, and a researcher with the Research Center for Care and Control of Infectious Diseases (RC3ID). Her work focuses on the clinical pharmacology and pharmacokinetics of tuberculosis treatment, with particular expertise in clinical trials and treatment optimisation.
An internal medicine specialist by training, she completed her PhD in Clinical Pharmacology at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands. Her research has covered drug-susceptible and drug-resistant TB, TB preventive treatment and tuberculous meningitis in both adults and children. She has led and contributed to international multicountry TB studies focused on improving the effectiveness and safety of TB treatment.
DR MELANIE KITONGO
Melanie Kitongo is a medical doctor and public health specialist currently working as a Market Shaping Specialist with the Global Fund’s TB team. She has more than 11 years of national and international experience across clinical and public health settings.
Her areas of experience include monitoring and evaluation, project management, data and knowledge management, and partnership building. Melanie holds a master’s degree in International Healthcare Management, Economics and Policy from SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, Italy. Before joining the Global Fund, she worked in Uganda, her home country.
DR TAUHIDUL ISLAM
Dr Tauhidul Islam is a medical doctor and public health specialist with more than two decades of experience in communicable diseases, particularly TB and HIV. He currently serves as Team Lead for Strategic Planning, Service Delivery and EMTCT in WHO’s Department of HIV, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis and STIs in Geneva.
His work focuses on strategic planning and integrated, people-centred service delivery to support countries in addressing HIV, TB, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections. He has worked with WHO since 2004 in roles across several regions. Before his current position, he coordinated the integrated communicable diseases team at WHO’s Western Pacific Regional Office in Manila and previously led the TB programme at the WHO Country Office in Papua New Guinea.
MR JAMES MALAR
A human rights lawyer working with TB key and vulnerable populations, human rights and gender at the Stop TB Partnership Geneva. Formally worked with civil society in Asia-Pacific.