SUMMARY
Setting
Haiti has the highest burden of tuberculosis (TB) in the Americas, with an estimated prevalence of 254/100,000 population. GHESKIO conducted active case finding (ACF) for TB at the household level in nine slums in Port-au-Prince.
Objective
We report on the prevalence of undiagnosed TB detected through GHESKIO’s ACF campaign.
Design
From August 1, 2014 to July 31, 2015, we conducted a retrospective cohort analysis using GHESKIO’s ACF campaign data. All individuals who reported chronic cough (cough ≥2 weeks) were tested for TB at GHESKIO, and those who were ≥10 years of age were included in the analyses.
Results
Of 104,097 individuals screened in the community, 5598 (5%) reported chronic cough and satisfied the study inclusion criteria. A total of 1110 (20%) were diagnosed with active TB disease (prevalence of 1066/100,000). Of the 5472 (98%) patients tested for HIV, 528 (10%) were HIV-positive; 143 (3%) patients were diagnosed with both diseases.
Conclusion
Household-level screening for cough, with TB and HIV testing for symptomatic patients, was a high-yield strategy, detecting a prevalence of undiagnosed disease exceeding national estimates by more than four-fold for TB, and by five-fold for HIV.
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