6th edition of the #IWalkIGive challenge!

For the 6th year running, Ramsay Sante Foundation is organizing a connected challenge in support of a worthy cause. 

It's now a much-anticipated internal annual event. The goal? Ramsay Santé employees and doctors count their steps over ten days to reach €50,000. This year, the donation will go to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). It will be used to finance their work in Niger and their program to combat and prevent tuberculosis among children.

Participants will connect in teams of 5, from France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, and possibly Australia. 

There were more than 5,300 of them in 2023, how many will be on the starting line in 2024? 

SUPPORT MSF IN ITS FIGHT AGAINST TUBERCULOSIS IN CHILDREN

The TACTiC (Test, Avoid, Cure Tuberculosis in Children) project supported by MSF (hereinafter, the "Project") aims to reduce the number of deaths due to tuberculosis in children, by sustainably improving the detection, management and prevention of this disease.

The aim is to transform the way tuberculosis is managed in children in MSF projects and beyond, by implementing three WHO recommendations: 

• The application oftreatment decision algorithms recommended by the WHO, enabling children to be diagnosed with or without X-rays, and to decide on rapid treatment even in the absence of specialized personnel, 
• Shorter curative treatment for drug-sensitive non-severe tuberculosis. Children with non-severe tuberculosis will be offered a more appropriate and less costly treatment of 4 months, compared with 6 months previously, 
• The application of a shorter preventive treatment (3 months) for family contacts. 

The project also aims to provide the data needed to confirm the relevance and feasibility of these recommendations through an operational research system.
 

This objective is based on three main levers: 

• Implementation of WHO recommendations through training of clinicians, capacity-building of relevant personnel and development of person-centeredpediatric tools, 
• Operational research into the feasibility, acceptability and validation of these recommendations in low-income environments, 
• Advocacy and mobilization to integrate these recommendations into national policies, and to draw international attention to the need for resources, research and funding for children with tuberculosis. 

WHY NIGER? 

Niger is a pilot country for TACTiC, which began operational research on therapeutic decision algorithms and their implementation in June 2023 at the Madarounfa site (during the Project's incubation phase). The Madarounfa site specializes in malnutrition. 

In 2024, TACTiC will be scaled up in Niger, since, thanks to the very positive experience of Madarounfa, the implementation of therapeutic decision algorithms will be extended to other MSF projects in the country: Magaria, Guidam Roundji, Madoua and Diffa. 

The Niger Ministry of Health has also asked MSF to provide training for 20 agents in the country's 8 regions, so that they in turn can train health agents in the application of therapeutic decision algorithms.