The Victorian Tuberculosis Program (VTP) is the statewide provider of public health services for tuberculosis (TB).
Key points
- We support the successful prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure of TB
- Our team includes public health nurse consultants, epidemiologists and others
- We work towards the global goal of TB elimination
The program is part of the Doherty Institute, a joint venture of the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the University of Melbourne.
What we do
The VTP team includes public health nurse consultants, epidemiologists and others working for better public health management of TB across Victoria.
The VTP aims to support the successful prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure, towards the global goal of the elimination of TB.
Tuberculosis is a notifiable disease in Victoria, and all cases must be reported to the Department of Health by the patient’s treating doctor using a notification form. Following notification, all people diagnosed with active TB will be assigned a nursing case manager.
The Public Health Clinical Nurse Consultants (CNCs) work with treating clinicians, pharmacists and hospital in the home to case manage patients in the community. The CNCs provide patient education, support medication adherence during the course of treatment, conduct contact tracing, undertake workplace TB screening, and facilitate referrals of contacts if required.
TB clinical services are primarily provided through respiratory, infectious disease and other specialist clinics at Victorian public tertiary referral hospitals. Medical practitioners can discuss and refer patients with suspected or proven TB to their nearest referral hospital.
The VTP team is available for discussions of TB case and contact management, and as a TB educational resource.
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