The Tuberculosis Fellowship Program in PAHO
Building Capacity at the Country Level on the New Stop TB Strategy

Dr. Ailton Alves, PAHO TB Fellow, demonstrating the use of a inhalator chamber in an asthmatic child.

One of the goals of the USAID-PAHO cooperation in the area of Tuberculosis is to build capacity at the national level on the new Stop TB Strategy. As part of this initiative, in 2008, Dr. Ailton Cezário Alves Júnior was selected to participate in the PAHO TB Fellowship Program.

Dr. Alves, a 34-year-old Brazilian physician, conducted graduate studies in Medical Psychology and Sanitary Pneumology in the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation - Ministry of Health of Brazil. During his academic studies, Dr. Alves had his first contact with TB during a visit to an indigenous group with high incidence rates. After this experience, he became involved in several health care projects targeting lung diseases and tuberculosis in poor communities. In 2003 he won the Award “Quality in Primary Health Care” for structuring a public assistance program for asthmatic children in Minas Gerais (a Brazilian State with 19 million inhabitants), which became a model for other states in Brazil. In 2005, Dr. Alves became the coordinator of the TB and respiratory diseases control program in Minas Gerais. In 2006, he integrated a PAHO initiative as part of the Team of Professionals Allied for Application of DOTS in Brazil, in support of the National Program of Tuberculosis.

In June 2008, Dr. Alves began the TB Fellowship Program with PAHO focusing on the following themes: analysis and development of guidelines such as the Control of Tuberculosis in Populations Deprived of their Liberty and Control of Tuberculosis in Countries of the English Caribbean; elaboration of situational studies such as assessing TB in prisons of the Americas and evaluating political commitment in the countries of the Americas; and training for the Practical Approach to Lung Health (PAL) initiative.

As part of his fellowship, Dr. Alves is monitoring the implementation of the PAL initiative in countries with the Stop TB Strategy component, through technical assistance, supervision and capacity building of health professionals. Dr. Alves recognizes that the various international experiences and lessons learned during his fellowship will allow him to have a broader vision of tuberculosis control and of strategies to strengthen health systems in different contexts. At the end of the fellowship, Dr. Alves will become the focal point for the implementation of PAL in the Americas.