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EBOH 50th Anniversary Seminar Series/Global Health Seminar Series
Giving voice to TB patients through data: how case-based data informed the 2015-2018 national plan for TB in Kenya
Dr. Christy L. Hanson, Dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship, Macalester College
3 November 2014, 4–5 PM
Room 521, McIntyre Building, 3655 Promenade Sir William Osler, Montreal

Tuberculosis (TB) is the 4th leading cause of death in Kenya. The Government of Kenya's TB programme was the first in sub-Saharan Africa to meet the WHO targets for case detection and treatment success. Yet, nearly 20,000 patients go undetected each year and the challenge of drug resistance may be mounting. In alignment with a new constitution and new national health sector strategy, the Kenyan national TB program developed a 4-year strategic plan for the period 2015-2018. The plan responds to evidence garnered from an electronic, case-based monitoring system that enabled sub-national analysis of epidemiological and programmatic realities. The opportunities and challenges of using sub-national data for planning will be discussed.

Learning objectives:
1) Understand the epidemiology of TB and status of TB control in Kenya
2) Understand the role of epidemiological and programmatic evidence in decision-making and national TB programme planning
3) Become familiar with the WHO-recommended monitoring and evaluation system for TB control as a source for TB epidemiological data

Christy Hanson is the Dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship and a Distinguished Lecturer in International Studies. Dr. Hanson joined Macalester during the 2011-2012 academic year as the Hubert H. Humphrey Professor and taught courses in international public health, and poverty, health and development. Dr. Hanson has nearly 20 years’ experience as a practitioner of international public health. Her primary area of expertise is tuberculosis (TB) control and has provided technical support to countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America through her previous positions with the World Health Organization (WHO), World Bank, PATH, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She has published and presented widely on various aspects of TB control. Dr. Hanson has also published on the economic burden of neglected tropical diseases and was USAID's technical and policy lead on the Agency's NTD Initiative for 5 years. Prior to taking up her role as the Dean of the IGC, Dr. Hanson was the Chief of the Infectious Diseases Division at USAID. Her division included the President’s Malaria Initiative, the NTD control Initiative, and the TB team. She is currently a member of the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's technical review panel, and is the chair of a WHO task force on the impact of neglected tropical disease control.  Dr. Hanson received her MPH from the University of Minnesota, and her PhD in international health systems, with a concentration in health economics, from Johns Hopkins University.