The workshop focused on helping country teams overcome shared implementation barriers to support more timely, safe, and equitable access to shorter, more effective DR-TB treatment across the region.
From July 6 to 9, 2026, a four-day regional workshop entitled ‘Strengthening Programmatic Management of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis’ was conducted to strengthen thebcountry responses to drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB).
Participants included tuberculosis program leaders, clinicians, laboratory specialists, public health professionals, and community partners from included Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, and the Philippines, along with regional and international partners.
Sessions covered clinical case management, adverse event monitoring, decentralized care, laboratory systems, gender and social inclusion, patient support, and country planning for the introduction, scale-up, and monitoring of BPaLM/BPaL and other all-oral regimens recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
It was organized by PeerLINC Knowledge Hub in partnership with TB Alliance and the Tropical Disease Foundation (TDF), with support from the Australian Government through AusAID.
“Drug-resistant tuberculosis remains one of the most difficult public health challenges in the region, but countries do not have to face it alone,” said Dr. Eden Mendoza-Hisey, head of PeerLINC Knowledge Hub.
She added, “Together with our partners at TB Alliance and TDF, we help countries move from evidence to implementation. When program leaders learn from peers who have already worked through similar challenges, they can adapt practical solutions that strengthen DR-TB care to patients.”
Meanwhile, in his opening remarks, Patrick Angeles, Program Officer for Health Partnerships at the Australian Embassy in the Philippines, emphasized the importance of regional cooperation in addressing shared health concerns.
“This PeerLINC regional training is an important platform to exchange knowledge. We encourage participants to draw not only from the expertise of resource persons and site visits, but also from each other’s successes and challenges,” said Angeles.
The said workshop combined technical discussions with field visits to the TDF clinic and laboratory, and selected health facilities in Makati and Pasay — allowing participants to observe diagnostic workflows, treatment enrollment, adverse event monitoring, digital adherence tools, drug supply management, and patient-centered care practices in actual service delivery settings.
The workshop concluded with country action planning, where delegations identified priority steps for the next six to twelve months based on gaps and opportunities within their respective health systems.
These country-owned plans also help provide a pathway for translating peer exchange into technical support that strengthens clinical, diagnostic, programmatic, patient-centered, and equity-oriented DR-TB care.
“We designed the training program around what countries need when they are already implementing or preparing to scale newer DR-TB regimens,” added Dr. Mendoza-Hisey. “The real measure of the training is what participants can change when they return home.”