KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation (KNCV TB)

Legal basis (mandates) and mission

KNCV TB is an international organization exclusively dedicated to fighting tuberculosis (TB) worldwide and to strengthening health systems' capacity against TB, both globally and locally. As a nongovernmental, non-profit organization, KNCV TB is not subject to legal mandates. The mission of KNCV TB is the global elimination of TB through the development and implementation of effective, efficient, and sustainable TB control strategies.

Together with its local and international partners, KNCV TB provides a full range of services in the following areas:

  • TB treatment and detection
  • programming against drug-resistant forms of TB
  • strengthening infection control
  • improving laboratory capacity
  • integration of TB control into HIV/AIDS programming
  • strengthening health care systems
  • mobilizing communities and civil society
  • increasing support for vulnerable groups

Topics of interest in the prison setting

  • TB
  • Drug resistance
  • HIV/TB coinfection
  • Vulnerable groups
  • Prevention of torture and ill treatment

Strategic operations

  • Promotion of best practices
  • Technical collaboration
  • Capacity building with health practitioners and national counterparts
  • Provision of TB-related health services to prisoners
  • Planning of and participation in international working groups
  • Research

Role in prisons

Since 1995, KNCV TB has worked in collaboration with the National Tuberculosis Programme of Kazakhstan to reduce the rates of TB transmission, morbidity, and mortality among prisoners by establishing an effective programme for TB control within the prison system. The objectives of the project are: 

  • to facilitate training of the most suitable prison staff and health care workers
  • to improve diagnostic capacity through direct smear examination of sputum
  • to install high quality laboratories for sputum smear examination
  • to establish a standardized recording and reporting system according to Order 471
  • to promote continuous health education
  • to assist in strengthening the interaction between the civil and prison health care systems

The sustainability of KNCV TB prison programming is supported by civil monitoring committees.

Target groups

  • Prisoners
  • Policy-makers
  • National health entities
  • Prison administrations
  • Prison health care workers

Geographic region of focus

KNCV TB is a Dutch organization with global reach; the prison component is concentrated in Kazakhstan.

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