Background: BD Global Health has committed its resources and intent for various interventions in TB care on TB and has been supporting the Government of India’s endeavour to eliminate TB. BD and the The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are making STRIDES against MDR-TB through a multi country strategic partnership to improve access to and capacity for TB and drug resistant (DR) TB diagnosis. STRIDES stand for Strengthen TB Resistance Testing & Diagnostic Systems. In India, STRIDES has been supporting the National TB Elimination Program (NTEP) of the Central TB Division (CTD) through numerous lab system strengthening interventions that include capacity buildings and assessments of the staff of the National and Intermediate Reference Laboratories (NRLs & IRLs).
In April, 2019, US Ambassador to India Kenneth I. Juster launched a new initiative “TB Pledge” designed to help India's corporate sector in the fight against tuberculosis (TB). The initiative supports the Indian government's ambitious goal of eliminating TB by 2025, which would be five years ahead of the UN's Sustainable Development Goal. It creates a shared platform for corporations committed to ending TB in India. BD was recognized as a platinum partner. Of the four tiers of recognition, platinum is the second to diamond.
To commemorate World TB Day, 2020, a “TB Free Workplace” (TBFW) campaign was launched under Corporate TB Pledge to accelerate the work in the lead up to World TB Day, 24th March 2020. All TB Pledge partners were requested to undertake activities as per guidance shared by UNION.
BD Global Health responded to the call by organizing a series of activities beginning end February for its associates.
A. Display of TB Free commitment statement at all offices
The TB Free workplace commitment poster was adapted and approved internally by BD leadership. Thereafter, we got this displayed at the prominent locations in all 11 offices in last week of February 2020. The posters would remain permanently displayed in all office locations. We did a sense check with at least 2 associates in each office who confirmed having read the commitment statement.
B. Discussion on the campaign with BD business leaders
On March 16, BD business leaders led by Mr. Pavan Mocherla, Managing Director, India and South East Asia, were apprised about the TBFW campaign plans. All of them had a preview of the TB animation video. Their questions around TB were also addressed
C. Constitution of TBFW campaign committee
We constituted an 8-member campaign committee comprising of BD associates from cross functions. All the members were named as TB Pledge ambassadors.
The terms of this committee were
The TB Pledge Ambassadors were helpful in sharing numerous campaign timelines with their fellow associates. These ambassadors would continue to socialize with other associates to find out if there could be any presumptive TB patient.
D. Communication to all BD associates on World TB Day
On March 24, an email communication was sent to all BD associates sharing the Global and India TB facts. We also apprised all BD’s role to support the National TB Elimination Program (NTEP)
E. Virtual TB awareness sessions
We conducted four virtual awareness sessions at different timings on March 26-27 for the benefit of BD associates
We streamed the TB animation video live in these sessions. We had 490 associates from varied backgrounds in marketing, sales, manufacturing, Human Resources (HR), Information & Technology (IT), supply chain and Research & Development (R&D) from across India attending the four scheduled sessions. CTD and USAID insights were very helpful for the teams to learn about TB, the initiatives being undertaken by the Ministry of Health to achieve the TB elimination goal of 2025 and the call to action for everyone to make that a reality.
F. TB awareness quiz
We held a four-quiz series on March 30 and April 2 to help reinforce what the associates learnt during the sessions. The first three quizzes were based on General awareness on TB. The last quiz was specifically based on the TB Animation video. We identified first five respondents with all correct questions as winners of each quiz.
