Phone: +255 (0) 26 2960150 | Email: info@ntlp.go.tz
Home / About / About NTLP

About NTLP

The National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Programme (NTLP) was launched by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in 1977 as a single combined Programme for the two diseases. In the fight of these two chronic epidemic diseases, the Ministry has joined hands with various international and local developmental partners.

Among international development partners include; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GF-ATM), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), World Health Organization (WHO) and German TB and Leprosy Relief Association (GLRA) who are main financiers of various Programme activities through different grants countrywide.

Smooth implementation can’t be unconnected with other key stakeholders and active partners/collaborators in various program interventions including implementing partners, local research institutions, academia, private sector organizations as well as community-based Civil Society Organizations

NTLP is charged with preventing and controlling TB and leprosy in Tanzania to the point that they are no longer major public health concerns. Structurally NTLP is within Head of Programs and Health System Strengthening (HOP&HSS) of the Ministry of Health (MOH). The Programme entails Tuberculosis and Leprosy Central Unit (TLCU) a team of sixty-five (65) people situated in the MOH co-ordinates all activities pertaining to TB, TB-HIV, and leprosy control in the country.

Similarly, at the sub-national level, there are thirty-three (33) Regional TB and Leprosy Coordinators (RTLC) and two hundred and twenty (220) District TB and Leprosy Coordinators (DTLC).  There are also one hundred and eight two (182) District TB/HIV Officers at the district level, integrated into district teams while being supported by partners.

In Tanzania, TB control is fully integrated into the primary health care services. The healthcare delivery system in the country is well established with 9,366 health facilities (75% Goverment, 1% Parastatal, 11 Faith Based Facilities and 14% For Profit ) comprising 436 hospitals, 1,126 Health centers, 7,804 dispensaries,. The Government is the major provider of health services owning and/or running 74% of the health facilities. TB and Leprosy control is fully integrated into primary health care services. 5,597 (59.7%) of the facilities provide TB treatment services and 1,859 (16%) provide TB diagnostic services

Coordinated efforts and prioritized investments to end TB in the country started to yield success in some areas of intervention however, health records still inform those communicable diseases are still the major cause of morbidity and mortality in the country driven by the HIV epidemic with a national prevalence of 4.7% general population.

TB has continued among other infectious diseases to be the top ten causes of death among admissions aged five years and above in the country which is a paramount urgency for intensifying efforts to realize the national and international set targets.