Link to article: https://ghi.wisc.edu/zero-tb-for-tibetan-kids/
This is a profile about ZTB’s early work and collaboration with other American universities. It was published on April 20, 2017 by the Global Health Institute of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Introduction
The project began in 2015 in a University of Wisconsin-Madison classroom. Madison’s Dr. Zorba Paster invited Tibetan health leaders from Dharamshala, India to participate in the UW-Madison’ Global Health Institute’s week-long Quality Improvement (QI) Leadership Institute. Their goal? To wipe out tuberculosis in Tibetan schools and monasteries, where the infection rate is six times higher than the global average. The effort will make a difference in their community and show that death and illness due to TB can be eliminated.
Fast forward two years. The Dalai Lama meets with the TB team led by Dawa Phunkyi, CEO of Delek Hospital, Paster and colleagues Kunchok Dorjee and Dick Chaisson from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They explain the TB dilemma, and the Dalai Lama agrees to record a public service message in Tibetan to underline the threat of the disease. He urges civil, government, school and religious leaders to work together on a new project, Zero TB in Tibetan Kids: Training to End TB Now.
“I hear you say that eliminating TB in Tibetan children is an achievable goal. Unlike many other diseases, TB is curable so it must be eliminated. … We should never let down our guard in the goal to eliminate TB.” — The Dalai Lama
