TB Patients Gain Benefits from $63.8M Support of Global TB Fund (2024-2026)

The Global Fund is a multilateral financial mechanism aimed at ending three diseases: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The allocation of USD 63.8 million from the fund for TB prevention from 2024 to 2026 reflects a strong commitment to end the global TB epidemic, especially in 30 countries with the highest TB burden in Asia, the Pacific, and Africa, where 86-90% of new TB cases, TB-HIV co-infections, and multidrug-resistant/rifampicin-resistant TB (MDR/RR-TB) are concentrated globally.

Ranked 11th on the list, Vietnam is consistently grappling with and addressing the challenges posed by TB, the infectious disease with the highest mortality rate. The most significant barrier is cutting off the transmission source in the community through screening. However, in reality, the screening stage is the weakest link in the chain of TB detection, diagnosis, and treatment with significant costs and resource implications.

The application of AI has been identified as a "life-saving" focal point, a cutting-edge technology capable of accurate and proactive detection in the community and healthcare facilities, enhancing the role of the basic healthcare system, aiming to end TB by 2035, according to Ministry of Health, Vietnam.

Enhancing the TB detection rate

In practice, investing in AI has helped identify a considerable number of suspected TB cases, TB relapses, through multiple screenings in provinces and cities in Vietnam. Most artificial intelligence (AI) software, such as DrAid™ TB Lung, has been meticulously evaluated for quality by independent organizations authorized by the World Health Organization, such as FIND or FIT, with an accuracy rate exceeding 93% (as seen in the product DrAid™ for TB Screening by VinBrain).

AI not only avoids omissions but also levels subjective factors such as uneven clinical expertise among radiologists and pulmonologists, overload issues among doctors, and objective factors such as unequal access to scientific advancements in different regions.

AI is also considered a valuable aid in screening pediatric patients, as the bacterial load in the saliva and sputum of children is often low, making diagnosis more complicated. Therefore, early detection and independent diagnosis by AI will help children receive timely treatment.

Removing barriers to healthcare access

With mobile digital X-ray machines used in screening sessions in remote provinces, AI software is a comprehensive innovation to handle a large number of people visiting with a limited number of doctors.

Increasing equality in screening access

AI is a tool to minimize contact discrimination with high-risk groups, such as HIV-infected individuals, drug users, the impoverished, those with precarious living conditions or no fixed residence, those living and working in prolonged concentrated environments like miners or prisons, and other clinical conditions such as diabetes or malnutrition.

AI opens up opportunities for everyone access the latest, high-quality healthcare services, increasing equality in healthcare access.

However, there are still many challenges that only substantial funding can address, particularly in the treatment phase, such as:

• Supporting the significant and devastating costs for TB patients who lose their ability to work.
• Providing assistance to patients who cannot afford the prolonged treatment costs, including morbidities. 
• Supporting patients with concurrent illnesses like HIV, lung cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, obstructions, etc.
• Supporting healthcare professionals working in infectious disease specialties.