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DS-TB Treatment Success Rate

References in the content below refer to the PBMEF Guide.

Definitions

Percent of people with new and relapse drug- sensitive tuberculosis (DS-TB) (bacteriologically confirmed or clinically diagnosed, pulmonary or extrapulmonary) who were notified in a specified period that were cured or treatment completed, among the total people with new and relapse TB who were initiated on treatment during the same reporting period (excluding those moved to rifampicin-resistant (RR) treatment cohort).

Treatment outcomes are defined by the time period of initiation on treatment; e.g., “2018 cases successfully treated” reflect those who were initiated on treatment in 2018, even though treatment may have extended into 2019. For this reason, reports of treatment outcome data lag by one year.

Calculation: (Numerator/Denominator) x 100

Numerator

Number of people with new and relapse DS-TB (bacteriologically confirmed or clinically diagnosed, pulmonary or extrapulmonary), who were registered in a specified period that were cured or treatment completed.

Denominator

Number of people with new and relapse DS-TB (bacteriologically confirmed or clinically diagnosed, pulmonary or extrapulmonary) who initiated treatment in the same period.
Ref #
DS_TSR
(Previously SS-1)
Tier Level
Core Indicator
Category
Cure
Type
Core Outcome
Unit of Measure
Percent of people
Data Type
Percentage
Disaggregations
Age (<15, 15+)
Sex
HIV Status
Reporting Level
All Core PBMEF indicators should be reported at the national level; data may also be collected subnationally for more granular monitoring.
Reporting Frequency
This indicator should be reported on a semiannual basis at a minimum. More frequent monitoring on a quarterly, monthly, or real-time basis is recommended. Performance plans and reports (PPRs) for this indicator are based on calendar year (CY) periodicity to reflect national level attainment and align with the USAID congressional reporting requirements.

This indicator is reported by National TB Program (NTP) official records. Quarterly report on TB treatment outcomes in the basic management unit and Form 07: Combined annual outcomes report for basic TB and for RR-/multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB.

This standard World Health Organization (WHO) indicator can also be calculated using the WHO database. The variable for the numerator is newrel_succ and the denominator is newrel_coh.

Treatment success is an important indicator of the quality of TB services, as it measures the NTP’s capacity to support patients through a complete course of treatment with a favorable outcome. Successful treatment requires a stable supply of TB medications, management of side effects, and various efforts to support people with TB so they can complete the full course of treatment. This indicator measures the successful treatment of a cohort of people with TB, which is essential to prevent the spread of the infection. The treatment success rate allows countries to monitor progress towards meeting global and national targets and to determine whether more resources are required to improve treatment outcomes by reducing death, loss to follow-up (LTFU), and the percent of people with an outcome that is not evaluated.

The latest global treatment outcome data from 2020 show success rates of 95% for TB, just above the End TB Strategy target of 90% by 2025. Detecting and successfully treating a large percent of people with TB should have an immediate impact on TB prevalence and mortality. Low treatment success rates may indicate problems with the treatment regimens being administered, poor treatment management, adverse side effects, or comorbidities leading to death or LTFU. An understanding of why treatment success may be low is important to be able to implement solutions for improving patient care.

TB treatment success rate can be analyzed as a trend showing whether treatment success is stable, improving or decreasing over time, and to compare the rate to national and global treatment success rate targets. A comparison of people with TB initiated on treatment and successfully completing treatment using a cascade of care will highlight the gap in the cascade where some patients were lost during the treatment phase. The gap between treatment initiation and treatment success can be further broken down to understand why patients were unsuccessful with treatment (e.g., death, LTFU, treatment failure, or unknown outcomes). Treatment success rates can also be compared between DS-TB and drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) and TB/HIV, but differences in treatment outcomes among these cohorts should be interpreted with caution; differences in TB epidemiology at the national level, resistance profile, HIV program context, and other factors should be considered.

There are no related indicators for this indicator.

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Changelog

January, 2024: Updated the name, definition, and other information based on the Interim PBMEF Tuberculosis Indicator Compendium. Formerly named TB Treatment Success Rate (TSR).