Project extension for community healthcare outcomes improves care and treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients in Tanzania.

Background: Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (Project ECHO) is a telementoring, case based virtual community of practice training and education model connecting experts to primary care clinicians (PCCs). Project ECHO has good evidence for favorable treatment outcomes on wide range of diseases. Since 2017, Tanzania hosts multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) ECHO with hub at Kibong'oto Infectious Diseases Hospital.

Diagnosis and interim treatment outcomes from the first cohort of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients in Tanzania.

Setting: Kibong'oto National Tuberculosis Hospital (KNTH), Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

Objective: Characterize the diagnostic process and interim treatment outcomes from patients treated for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Tanzania.

Design: A retrospective cohort study was performed among all patients treated at KNTH for pulmonary MDR-TB between November 2009 and September 2011.