COMDIS Key Achievements

In close partnership with the national disease control programmes in the countries where we work:

COMDIS research findings define national disease control policy and practice.

We played a pivotal role in the development of a national policy on malaria diagnosis in Uganda, and studied areas needing more support during the scale up.
An analysis of the burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in southern Sudan by COMDIS has been the basis for the development of the new national guidelines for NTD control there.

COMDIS improves quality of care and adherence to treatment

Our research findings have been used to inform products such as TB case management guidelines that have been developed jointly with various national TB, malaria and HIV/AIDS programmes in five countries, with scale up across all of Pakistan and much of China.
We have shown that anti-retroviral treatment can be delivered by nurses in health centres, safely, effectively and acceptably through a trial in southern Africa.

COMDIS bridges the public-private sector divide

Public-partnership guidelines and tools have been developed and evaluated and are being scaled-up in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Through research conducted in garment factories in Bangladesh, we established an operational mechanism for effective, sustainable TB control in workplace situations there.

COMDIS builds local capacity through research and health development embedded within national programmes.

Our partner country NGOs and national programme officers are involved in all stages of research, guideline development and evaluation.
Our research findings, guidelines and improved training methods have been used to train health workers in all seven partner countries - e.g. in China 5,500 TB doctors on case management of TB.

COMDIS turns WHO documents into user-friendly guidelines for doctors and other health workers.

In consultation with international and national agencies, we have developed case management guidelines for childhood TB, multi-drug resistant TB and sexually transmitted diseases: these are currently being evaluated in Pakistan.