Challenges in tackling tuberculosis on the Thai-Myanmar border: findings from a qualitative study with health professionals

Table 2 Challenges to TB control on the Thai-Myanmar border based on perspectives of informants

Key theme	Category	Number of respondents mentioning the key theme	Percentage
Coordination and collaboration among stakeholders	Insufficient networking and collaboration at a local level	22	71.0 %
	Unstructured referral mechanisms
	Lack of information on TB services provided by other organizations
	Patient loss to follow up
Service delivery	Inadequate access to TB services	12	38.7 %
	Transportation problems
	Uncertain sustainability of TB programs implemented by NGOs
	Impractical policy at a local level
Organization structure	Shortage of human resources	11	35.5 %
	Limited staff capacities
	Limited funding for non-Thai patients
	High workload in non-Thai TB cases
Epidemiological trend and case finding	High default rate among non-Thais	7	22.6 %
	High MDR-TB case rate among non-Thais
	Need for effective case finding
Socioeconomic status of patients	Delay and interruption in seeking care	7	22.6 %
	Limited knowledge and understanding of TB
	Patient legal status
	Language barriers

ISSN: 1472-6963