Chronic disease, communicable or non-communicable, that requires lifelong treatment has to be reported differently as patients cannot be cured. For instance, in relation to HIV, the two essential pieces of information are how many new patients are being initiated and registered for ART each quarter and how many cumulatively are retained alive and on therapy, stratified by type of ART regimen. Similarly, ever since the ‘DOTS TB Strategy Framework’ was launched in 1994, tuberculosis control programmes all over the world have monitored, recorded and reported on the treatment outcomes of patients registered for treatment. The study focuses on the significance of monitoring treatment outcomes of chronic diseases such as HIV and TB to evaluate facility based programme outcomes, clinic performance and cohort survival overtime.
