I.D. Rusen ^1* Donald A Enarson ¹

¹ International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union)

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: irusen{at}iuatld.org.

	Abstract

Abstract: Tuberculosis was declared a global public health emergency in 1993. In 2003, only 45% of the world's estimated new smearpositive tuberculosis cases were detected--well below the 70% global case detection target set by the World Health Organization.

The FIDELIS (Fund for Innovative DOTS Expansion Through Local Initiatives to Stop TB) initiative is a new global disease control initiative that has been developed to rapidly assess and implement innovative approaches to increase tuberculosis case detection. To date, 32 projects have been approved--covering approximately 378 million people in 13 countries--24 (75%) of which are in the world's 6 highest-burden countries. A wide range of target populations and interventions have been incorporated into successful FIDELIS projects. The FIDELIS initiative may serve as a model to discover best practices to address other urgent global public health problems.

Key Words: Global Health, Access to Care, Tuberculosis, Public Health Practice

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