This year’s Canadian Conference on International Health heard an update on progress with the FIDELIS project (Fund for Innovative DOTS [Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course] Expansion Through Local Initiatives to Stop TB.

A report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal sums up a presentation by Dr I D Rusen, director of the Tuberculosis Control and Prevention Department of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. He told the meeting that FIDELIS had so far funded 51 projects in 18 countries, mostly in regions with the highest burden of tuberculosis.

The projects range from training school children in China how to detect possible tuberculosis cases in their families, to creating a radio call-in show in Pakistan for tuberculosis patients to explain how they were diagnosed and treated. So far, the projects have resulted in the detection of 272,216 new cases of tuberculosis.

Interestingly, most of the projects have been funded as short-term “proof-of-concept” initiatives. These are popular with funding agencies who need to feel confident that a project is going to work before committing longer term support.

An article describing the launch of FIDELIS was published in 2006 in the American Journal of Public Health.