(New York Times) – Health workers in developing countries know that isolating tuberculosis patients is an outdated and potentially harmful practice, but lack the resources to move away from it.

The sanitarium model of TB treatment — confining people in isolation for a lengthy period — was declared obsolete in the United States and other high-income countries some 60 years ago. It lingered in Eastern Europe until 15 years ago, but it is still used in some low-income countries in Africa and Asia, where health systems lack the resources to update policy, retrain staff or deploy community health workers to help patients at home.

For the past 15 years, the World Health Organization has said that TB patients should not be isolated or confined, or hospitalized at all, unless they are acutely ill. Research shows that their TB treatment would be more successful if done at home, because patients would have better mental health and would be less exposed to other infections. (Read More)