Authors: Challa Ruda, Fraser Wares, Nebiyu Hiruy, Ahmed Bedru.
Background: Prevention and control of TB infection, especially in high transmission environments, is a priority activity for TB control. Ethiopia is a high TB burden country, where despite incidence rates falling in recent years, 30% of cases may be “missing”. The design and implementation of TB infection control (TB-IC) interventions were required at all health facilities (HF). Under the USAID-supported Challenge TB (CTB) Project (2014-2019), a package of TB-IC interventions at HF were supported.
Methods: Data on the performance of TB-IC measures at HFs were collected using a supervision checklist and the SOC/QUAL TB tool. Data was then compiled and analysed.
Results: From June 2016 to December 2018, implementation of TB-IC measures in the assessed HFs improved (e.g. presence of TB-IC plan [25% to 61.2%], TB-IC multidisciplinary committee [48.5% to 63%], prioritization of cough triage [38.4% to 55.8%]). TB screening in hospital out-patient department attendees and amongst health staff led to 5,402 and 179 TB cases being detected respectively – almost 4- and 2-fold higher rates respectively than in the general population.
Conclusion: The project support led to an improvement in implementation of TB-IC measures in the HF. Continued monitoring of TB-IC measures is required to maintain the observed improvement.
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