September 2020
Vietnam is among 30 countries with the highest TB burden in the world and is 11th within those 30 countries with the highest burden of drug-resistant (DR-TB). In February 2020, the USAID Sustainable HIV and Tuberculosis Response from Technical Assistance (SHIFT) project partnered with Vietnam’s National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) in seven priority provinces to improve TB detection and treatment, including An Giang, one of the highest TB burden provinces.
USAID selected three districts in An Giang to implement an innovative new strategy called Double X, which utilizes chest X-rays and the rapid detection tool, Xpert MTB/RIF, to improve TB detection with higher sensitivity and specificity than traditional sputum smears. The strategy also focuses on higher risk TB patients outside of the NTP network, specifically in patients with pneumonia and outpatients with respiratory symptoms or diabetes. USAID/SHIFT coached and trained health care providers at these facilities to implement Double X.
Double X increased TB detection in An Giang’s three USAID-supported districts. Between February and August 2020, a total of 11,049 high-risk patients were screened using Double X. Of these, 154 were diagnosed with TB, including eight DR-TB patients, leading to an 86 percent increase in case detection in the three districts from the 2019.
These early results suggest that implementing the Double X strategy is an effective approach to increase TB detection and treatment and reduce community transmission, advancing Vietnam’s goal of ending TB by 2030. The Double X strategy aligns with USAID’s Global Accelerator to End TB program by prioritizing partnership, capacity building, and community engagement. USAID/SHIFT will continue to pilot Double X in health facilities in an additional 15 districts in the seven USAID priority provinces, and overall results of this pilot will be used to determine national expansion of this strategy.
