Public-private partnership for TB control in Bangladesh: Role of Private Medical Practitioners in the management of TB patients

Background: Despite enormous efforts, Bangladesh has one of the highest burdens of tuberculosis (TB) in the world. Treatment in the private sector is common and popular among TB patients in South-Asian countries, including Bangladesh, even though the quality of diagnosis and treatment of TB patients has been shown to be poor in several such countries. The Bangladesh National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP) has recently shown considerable interest in exploring policy options to address this problem. Consequently, the NTP and Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) partners planned to develop a public-private partnership (PPP) model for effective involvement of private medical practitioners (PMPs) in TB control. However, there was a lack of solid data on TB case management practice by PMPs which was needed to appraise the potential role and contribution of PMPs in TB control. The purpose of the study is therefore to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of PMPs on TB control in an urban setting in Bangladesh in order to inform development of a public-private collaboration model.