Baxter India supported Operation ASHA in 2015-17 to test Operation ASHA’s model for detection and treatment of disadvantaged TB patients in India. The program was implemented in a population of nearly 8.4 million people living in thousands of urban shanties and villages in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in India. These areas are geographically different from the areas in which Operation ASHA had traditionally implemented TB Program.
The Program resulted in improving detection of patients by over 3 times by detecting 342 additional patients. It also improved adherence to therapy by increasing drug consumption per patient by over 75% in a year. This proved the hypothesis many experts had held for a long time that Operation ASHA’s model is agnostic to disease. It can be applied to any disease, or as a matter of fact, to distribute any product or service to the disadvantaged at a low cost.
