At present, the DOT programme has been introduced in Russia, which is supported by the following foreign organizations: MERLIN (British non-governmental agency; WHO, Finnish Association of Pulmonary Diseases; Norwegian Association of Patients with Tuberculosis; New York Institute of Health, "Physicians Without Borders" (Belgium). The main point of the programme is to identify bacillary patients with tuberculosis in the clinical diagnostic laboratories among those who see doctors for complaints of suspected tuberculosis. While implementing the programme, the work of a general health care laboratory could be activated in identifying patients with tuberculosis.
