Community- based Active Tuberculosis Case Finding in Pastoralist Communities of North-Eastern Uganda.

Tuberculosis case finding and multidrug resistance gene xpert

Journal

Microbiology research journal international
ISSN: 2456-7043
Titre abrégé: Microbiol Res J Int
Pays: India
ID NLM: 101726596

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
04 Nov 2019
Historique:
entrez: 25 6 2021
pubmed: 4 11 2019
medline: 4 11 2019
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

Given the global urgency to improve tuberculosis (TB) case detection, a renewed interest in active case finding (ACF) has risen. Missed TB cases pose a serious threat as they continue to fuel TB transmission in the community. We aimed to assess the feasibility of community based ACF for TB among people living in a pastoralist community in Uganda and determine its impact on case detection and treatment uptake. Between April and May 2019, four third year medical and nursing students placed at Moroto Regional Referral for community orientation worked together with community health workers to conduct a door-to-door survey for TB in pastoralist communities of Nadunget Sub County, Moroto district. The community health workers and the Medical/Nursing students performed symptom screening, collected sputum and facilitated specimen transport to the laboratory. Gene Xpert MTB/RIF assay was performed at the regional referral Hospital for all sputum samples. The community health workers were tasked to follow up on all those clients whose samples turned out to be positive so that they could start treatment as soon as possible. All presumptive cases with negative sputum results were referred to the TB clinic for further evaluation. In one month, we screened 385 individuals and identified 143 aged above 15 years with symptoms suggestive of TB. Among the presumptive cases, 132 (92%) reported a cough of more than two weeks and we were able to obtain sputum samples from 84(58.7%) participants. We diagnosed 11, including 8 bacteriologically confirmed TB cases using Gene Xpert and there was no multidrug resistant case identified. The median time from sputum collection to notification of the positive result was 3 days. All the positive cases were followed up and initiated on treatment. The findings from our study suggest that in a pastoralist community, ACF for TB using a sensitive symptom screen followed by Gene Xpert contributed to improved case detection of TB, shortening the turnaround time hence timely initiation of patients on TB treatment.

Sections du résumé

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND
Given the global urgency to improve tuberculosis (TB) case detection, a renewed interest in active case finding (ACF) has risen. Missed TB cases pose a serious threat as they continue to fuel TB transmission in the community. We aimed to assess the feasibility of community based ACF for TB among people living in a pastoralist community in Uganda and determine its impact on case detection and treatment uptake.
METHODS METHODS
Between April and May 2019, four third year medical and nursing students placed at Moroto Regional Referral for community orientation worked together with community health workers to conduct a door-to-door survey for TB in pastoralist communities of Nadunget Sub County, Moroto district. The community health workers and the Medical/Nursing students performed symptom screening, collected sputum and facilitated specimen transport to the laboratory. Gene Xpert MTB/RIF assay was performed at the regional referral Hospital for all sputum samples. The community health workers were tasked to follow up on all those clients whose samples turned out to be positive so that they could start treatment as soon as possible. All presumptive cases with negative sputum results were referred to the TB clinic for further evaluation.
RESULTS RESULTS
In one month, we screened 385 individuals and identified 143 aged above 15 years with symptoms suggestive of TB. Among the presumptive cases, 132 (92%) reported a cough of more than two weeks and we were able to obtain sputum samples from 84(58.7%) participants. We diagnosed 11, including 8 bacteriologically confirmed TB cases using Gene Xpert and there was no multidrug resistant case identified. The median time from sputum collection to notification of the positive result was 3 days. All the positive cases were followed up and initiated on treatment.
CONCLUSION CONCLUSIONS
The findings from our study suggest that in a pastoralist community, ACF for TB using a sensitive symptom screen followed by Gene Xpert contributed to improved case detection of TB, shortening the turnaround time hence timely initiation of patients on TB treatment.

Identifiants

pubmed: 34169184
doi: 10.9734/mrji/2019/v29i330166
pmc: PMC8221588
mid: NIHMS1608094
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Pagination

1-10

Subventions

Organisme : FIC NIH HHS
ID : R25 TW011213
Pays : United States

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

COMPETING INTERESTS Authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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Auteurs

Guma Isaac (G)

Department of community and public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences Busitema University, Uganda.

Emuron John Robert (EJ)

Department of community and public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences Busitema University, Uganda.

Namugambe Swabrah (N)

Department of community and public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences Busitema University, Uganda.

Nabirye Gloria (N)

Department of community and public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences Busitema University, Uganda.

Philip Denis Okungura (PD)

Moroto Regional Referral Hospital, Moroto District, Uganda.

Paul Oboth (P)

Department of community and public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences Busitema University, Uganda.

Jacob S Iramiot (JS)

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Health Sciences Busitema University, Uganda.

Rebecca Nekaka (R)

Department of community and public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences Busitema University, Uganda.

Classifications MeSH