Geneva, Switzerland, 17 June 2014 – The International Council of Nurses today announced the launch of a “Leading Lights” initiative which aims to showcase the work of exceptional nurses trained by the ICN TB/MDR-TB project who are “bringing light where there is no light”. These nurses have all made a valuable contribution to TB prevention, care and management in their local facility and/or community. 

“There are TB nurses doing an amazing job out there and we want to get the word out,” said ICN TB Project Director, Gini Williams. “The Leading Lights Award will highlighting outstanding contributions from people directly involved with caring for those affected by any form of TB and show the world what an impact the right training and resources can have on this global disease." 

Held during the 14th meeting of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Tuberculosis, the launch included presentations about the Leading Lights Initiative and the work of the ICN TB Project from Evan Lee Vice President, Global Health Programs and Access, Eli Lilly and Company; David Benton, Chief Executive Officer of ICN; and Gini Williams, TB Project Director.

ICN invites all the ICN TB project partners to nominate nurses and allied health workers who have demonstrated excellence in their efforts to teach their colleagues about TB, improve patient care or make changes to reduce transmission of TB. The winners will be highlighted on the ICN’s TB Project webpages www.icn.ch/tbproject and will be presented with a certificate and a special pin by their national nurses association. The aim is to highlight 

success stories from the project and demonstrate the important work nurses do solving problems at a local level. 

TB kills more youth and adults than any other infectious disease which makes it a serious social and economic problem as well as being devastating for the people who suffer with it. In 2012, 8.6 million people fell ill with TB and 1.3 million diedi

. The disease burden is heaviest in developing countries, where 95% of the cases occur. Even in developed countries, TB is re-emerging as a public health concern. The chance that anyone person will become ill with TB after infection is low (one in ten), but in the HIV infected person the chance of developing TB is accelerated by the failing immune system, and may be as high as 50% lifetime risk or 10 % per yearii

. 

 

A nurse or other primary health worker may be the first to suspect TB in patients. Nurses are the best patients’ allies in recognising TB symptoms, referring them for diagnosis and assuring treatment. 

The ICN TB/ MDR-TB Project, which is supported by a United Way Worldwide grant made possible by the Lilly Foundation, has been building global nursing capacity in the prevention, care and treatment of TB as part of the Lilly MDR-TB Partnership since 2005. The project uses a transformational training methodology, designed specifically to encourage practice development. This means that experienced nurses working mainly in the TB and HIV field,are trained to cascade information to nursing colleagues and other health workers with the purpose of making improvements to patient care delivery. The project has reached more than 90,000 nurses and allied health workers in China, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Philippines, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia. 

New TB project website launched 

ICN’s new TB project webpages www.icn.ch/tbproject provide the global nursing community with access to the most recent information on all aspects of TB management, prevention and care with quick and easy access to essential information on the TB/MDR-TB Project. The site provides information on the project, the people involved, ICN’s partners, as well as giving visitors access to essential training resources such as the ICN’s e-learning course, ICN TB Guidelines, the TB Infection Control toolkit, position statements and fact sheets. 

As part of the celebrations for International Nurses Day, Gini Williams wrote two blogs which can be accessed via the following URLs: 

www.aeras.org/blog/nurses-a-force-for-change-a-vital-resource-for-health#.U3muBKOZkcv 

https://lillypad.lilly.com/entry.php?e=4224 

Note for Editors 

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations representing the millions of nurses worldwide. Operated by nurses and leading nursing internationally, ICN works to ensure quality care for all and sound health policies globally. 

For further information contact Lindsey Williamson at: [email protected] 

Tel: +41 22 908 0100; Fax: +41 22 908 0101, www.icn.ch 

i  World Health Organization (2014). Tuberculosis Fact sheet No. 104. 

www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/ 

ii ICN (2001) Tuberculosis Fact Sheet 

www.icn.ch/images/stories/documents/publications/fact_sheets/4l_FS-Tuberculosis.pdf