Twelve implementation and operational research projects have been awarded grants following a call for proposals to identify and address barriers and bottlenecks to implementing tuberculosis-related services in the WHO European Region during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Small Grants Scheme is a joint initiative of TDR and WHO regional offices that aims to strengthen the research capacity of individuals and institutions in conducting implementation research in low- and middle-income countries on infectious diseases of poverty.
The grants are supporting research to help ensure prevention, detection, treatment and care services for TB patients are maintained during the COVID-19 pandemic. Short- and long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB services, as well as health systems responses to them, is the main focus of research proposals from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Some of the research projects focus on evaluating innovative interventions to improve care for patients with drug-resistant TB. These include a project proposal from Belarus and a joint proposal from Latvia and Lithuania. Projects from Romania, the Russian Federation and Ukraine are focusing on ways to improve service delivery for communities that might experience limited access to TB services, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as rural populations, migrants and prisoners.
The TDR grants also aim to build adequate and sustainable structures and processes for evidence-informed decision-making in national policies and programmes.
“I look forward to seeing the findings from these research projects, which will help us better understand the challenges that national TB services are facing during the pandemic and contribute to finding possible solutions,” said Askar Yedilbayev, TB team lead in the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
The selected proposals are:
| Country | Principal Investigator | Project title |
| Armenia | Naira Khachatryan | The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the provision of TB-related services by the national TB programme |
| Azerbaijan | Parvana Valiyeva | Identify and address the barriers to re-strengthen provision of essential TB services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan |
| Belarus | Natalia Yatskevich | Analysis of data from operational research on evaluation of effectiveness and safety of modified all-oral shorter treatment regimens for rifampicin-resistant TB in the Republic of Belarus |
| Georgia | Lela Sulaberidze | Adaptations made to the TB response during the COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia: health systems perspective on the implications for TB case detection and treatment provision |
| Kazakhstan | Elmira Berikova | Study of the main obstacles and delays in the provision of services for the detection, accurate diagnosis, treatment of TB and DR-TB during the COVID-19 pandemic in two regions of Kazakhstan |
| Kyrgyzstan | Muratbek Ahmatov | Study of risk factors affecting the increase in the level of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Kyrgyz Republic during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| Latvia | Liga Kuksa | Evaluating the effectiveness and safety of modified all-oral shorter rifampicin-resistant TB treatment regimens in Latvia and Lithuania |
| Romania | Fidelie Kalambayi | Understanding the uptake of TB screening services in Romanian rural communities: an ethnographic exploration of the implementation practice |
| Russian Federation | Irina Felker | Ensuring timely diagnosis of TB in migrants of the Novosibirsk region in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic |
| Tajikistan | Bobojon Pirmahmadzoda | Drug-resistant TB and COVID-19 in Dushanbe: Gaining experience to overcome barriers |
| Ukraine | Alexandra Dmitrieva | Strengthening the interaction between penitentiary and civil sectors of medicine to improve prisoners' access to TB treatment in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic |
| Uzbekistan | Ruzilya Usmanova | TB and COVID-19 in Uzbekistan: new challenges |
For more information, please contact Dr Garry Aslanyan