What is DOTS Therapy?

DOTS stands for directly observed treatment + short course chemotherapy, which is used to comprehensively monitor chemotherapy for non-hospitalized tuberculosis patients, so as to ensure regular medication and improve the cure rate.

DOTS

I.e. directly observed treatment + short course chemotherapy,

Most infectious lungs

The DOTS strategy is more than a medical measure. It is a combination of powerful various medications with a new modern health management system. It includes five basic elements, namely:

DOTS government commitment to TB program

The commitment of governments at all levels to tuberculosis control is the key to effective tuberculosis control. This commitment is concretely reflected in the need for the government and the health administration to incorporate the national tuberculosis plan as a long-term plan into the national health development plan so that this plan covers the whole country and guarantees human, material and financial resources. Health administrative departments at all levels must give strong organizational leadership and policy support to tuberculosis control in the region. It is necessary to establish professional and technical management institutions at all levels to organize, coordinate, supervise and evaluate the major tasks in the plan, and to integrate the primary health care network into the most basic organization of the plan. In addition, a national tuberculosis planning workbook should be developed, and a standardized registration and reporting system and training program established.

DOTS finds patient through sputum smear microscopy

Suspected tuberculosis patients who come to the hospital are required to undergo three sputum smear microscopy to find infectious patients with tuberculosis.

DOTS is given standard short course chemotherapy under proper management

Under proper management, at least all sputum smear-positive TB patients are given standard short-course chemotherapy.

The correct method of patient management is best to supervise the patient during the whole process, at least during the intensive period of the first 2 months of treatment, and to ensure that the patient can complete the full course of treatment (6-8 months) to avoid recurrence. The standard protocol uses short-course chemotherapy recommended by the World Health Organization.

DOTS establishes formal drug supply system

This supply system must be a regular and uninterrupted supply of all major anti-TB drugs, such as isoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol, pyrazinamide, etc., and the quality of the drugs must be guaranteed. According to the number of patients registered and drug inventory, a drug procurement plan should be made in advance and allocated in a timely manner.

DOTS establishes monitoring and evaluation system for plan execution

This system is based on detailed records and periodic summary reports of each patient at the county (district) level professional institution, and has standard and unified patient classification, classification, and probation assessment criteria.

In 1997, the World Health Organization announced that breakthroughs in TB prevention and treatment had been achieved due to the implementation of DOTS. The TB epidemic declined for the first time in decades, and it is expected that 3 to 4 million new cases will be reduced globally each year in the next decade; if not adopted, DOTS, the number of new cases will increase to nearly 9 million per year by 2005. Former Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, believes that from the perspective of saving lives, DOTS is the biggest health breakthrough in the past decade, and it is the most feasible way to treat the existing 20 million TB patients. At the same time, it is a further step to prevent TB. The best way to spread is the only hope that drug-resistant tuberculosis will not get worse. This strategy is internationally recognized as the most cost-effective TB control strategy.