The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a $3 million grant to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement to support the organization's initiative to reduce tuberculosis deaths in South Africa.
The initiative, which was co-designed by the South Africa Department of Health, aims to significantly improve TB care by using quality improvement methodologies to reduce the number of patients who fall out of the care process. The organizations hope to reduce the incidence of TB by nearly a third and cut the rate of TB mortality in half by 2022.
TB is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Infection occurs when someone with active TB transmits the bacteria to another person via coughing, speaking or singing. The illness can be deadly if left untreated.
In South Africa, TB kills more than 30,000 people every year.
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