Thailand recorded 113,000 tuberculosis cases in 2023, with nearly 33,000 people still missing from care. Over 9,000 people were diagnosed with both TB and HIV, and nearly 3,000 individuals were estimated to have drug-resistant TB. While TB-related deaths have decreased by 9% compared to the previous year, the country continues to face challenges in reducing undiagnosed cases and expanding access to timely diagnosis and treatment.
In 2020, we provided 5 Delft Light portable backpack X-ray systems, together with the CAD4TB, to the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, which has been deploying these systems to screen for TB among migrants at the border and in prisons.
With the Global Fund’s support, SMRU’s TB screening program helps the migrant populations of Myanmar and Thailand. These at-risk populations, who live on both sides of the Thai-Myanmar border in the Mae Sot area of the Tak Province, are deprived of quality health care. Alongside their research and humanitarian services, they focus on maternal and child health, as well as infectious diseases. In 2022, we further strengthened their efforts by delivering an additional Delft Light to them.
Later, in 2023, an additional CAD4TB was provided to the Ministry of Health in Thailand to support the country’s rapid screening and triage of TB.
We provided 9 Delft Lights, in combination with 9 CAD4TB, to Thailand in 2024. In 2025, the nation’s Ministry of Health deployed 3 CAD4TB in the country, further boosting the nation’s fight against TB.
Making a difference
Webinar insights
For more information about how the Delft Light portable X-ray and CAD4TB solutions are used in Thailand, please view the story of ‘Field TB-Screening of Migrants Living in the Thailand-Myanmar Border with CAD4TB’ by Dr. Banyar Maung of SMRU in Thailand. The story was presented during the Delft Imaging webinar of 2022. During the webinar, Dr Maung noted: “Our target populations are migrants from Myanmar living in remote Thai villages. They find getting screened for TB and other health issues challenging as many are illegal migrants with travel restrictions and, thus, not included in Thailand’s health system. We must go to them since sending them to the clinic is difficult. So, we are doing both active and passive case findings. We use CAD4TB in free screening in the villages and our two TB clinics- one on each side of the Thailand-Myanmar border.”
