Health is a precious asset that we don’t recognise or fully appreciate, until it has been depleted.
According to the World Health Organisation, approximately 10 million people will fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) each year, and despite being a preventable and curable disease, 1.5 million will ultimately die, making it the world’s second most infectious killer, after COVID-19.
Although present all over the world, TB is most prominent in low to middle income countries, with about half of all cases being found in eight main locations. In order to prevent TB and improve global health overall, screening those who fall into a high risk category, early detection and treatment, and vaccinations are essential.
One such company that is working tirelessly towards eliminating TB, is international, non-governmental organisation, KNCV TB Plus (KNCV), whose purpose is to contribute to a world free of TB and other related diseases. Established in 1903, and with over 120 years of experience, KNCV provides indispensable knowledge in the field of effective TB control. This has resulted in pre-elimination in the Netherlands, as well as significant contributions to global evidence generation, policy development and TB program implementation worldwide.
With a mission to save lives and end human suffering, KNCV’s approach is to put people first through innovative, effective, and sustainable strategies that demonstrate a positive impact on health, whilst accelerating the global decline of TB and other related diseases. By broadening the innovative methods of diagnostics, KNCV is able to use extensive experience to diagnose other infectious diseases through for instance nanopore sequencing technology.
Most importantly however, KNCV ensures that as an organisation, it works within the existing health care system of each country, integrating the tools and regiments with the systems and structure that is already in place, training people or local NGO to do the work themselves.
KNCV employs an inspirational team of experts and is a frontrunner in implementing shorter regimen such as the BPaL regimen and 3HP. The organisation believes that the investment in the elimination of TB, it is an investment in prevention and preparedness for pandemics globally, and with a people-centred approach towards TB and other related health problems, innovation is truly at the heart of KNCV’s work.
As well as this, KNCV successfully demonstrates its commitment to the wellbeing of children who are suffering with TB, by having created the KNCV Simple One Step Stool Test, which was developed to detect TB and rifampicin resistance, focusing specifically on helping young children.
As it stands, the process of testing children for TB can be complex, invasive, stressful and painful, however, through KNCV’s innovation, a very simple method has been developed. This has not only improved the testing process but also made it easy to bring into many countries, as it requires very limited training, due to people knowing how to use the equipment already.
In the long term, KNCV strives for ending TB as a global health problem, ensuring that the company continues with a people focused approach. KNCV believes that through investing in the elimination of TB, is an investment in prevention and preparedness for pandemics globally.
