There was concern that the COVID-19 pandemic would adversely affect TB and HIV programme services in Kenya. We set up real-time monthly surveillance of TB and HIV activities in 18 health facilities in Nairobi so that interventions could be implemented to counteract anticipated declining trends. Aggregate data were collected and reported monthly to programme heads during the COVID-19 period (March 2020–February 2021) using EpiCollect5 and compared with monthly data collected during the pre-COVID period (March 2019–February 2020). During the COVID-19 period, there was an overall decrease in people with presumptive pulmonary TB (31.2%), diagnosed and registered with TB (28.0%) and in those tested for HIV (50.5%). Interventions to improve TB case detection and HIV testing were implemented from August 2020 and were associated with improvements in all parameters during the second six months of the COVID-19 period. During the COVID-19 period, there were small increases in TB treatment success (65.0% to 67.0%) and referral of HIV-positive persons to antiretroviral therapy (91.2% to 92.9%): this was more apparent in the second six months after interventions were implemented. Programmatic interventions were associated with improved case detection and treatment outcomes during the COVID-19 period, suggesting that monthly real-time surveillance is useful during unprecedented events.

BackgroundLarge numbers of tuberculosis (TB) patients seek care from private for-profit providers. This study aimed to assess and compare TB control activities in the private for-profit and public sectors in Kenya between 2013 and 2017.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study using routinely collected data from the National Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Lung Disease Program.ResultsOf 421 409 patients registered and treated between 2013 and 2017, 86 894 (21%) were from the private sector. Data collection was less complete in the private sector for nutritional assessment and follow-up sputum smear examinations (p<0.001). The private sector notified less bacteriologically confirmed TB (43.1% vs 52.6%; p<0.001) and had less malnutrition (body mass index <18.5 kg/m2; 36.4% vs 43.3%; p<0.001) than the public sector. Rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing and antiretroviral therapy initiation were >95% and >90%, respectively, in both sectors, but more patients were HIV positive in the private sector (39.6% vs 31.6%; p<0.001). For bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary TB, cure rates were lower in the private sector, especially for HIV-negative patients (p<0.001). The private sector had an overall treatment success of 86.3% as compared with the public sector at 85.7% (p<0.001).ConclusionsThe private sector is performing well in Kenya although there are programmatic challenges that need to be addressed.

Real-time operational research can be defined as research on strategies or interventions to assess if they are feasible, working as planned, scalable and effective. The research involves primary data collection, periodic analysis during the conduct of the study and dissemination of the findings to policy makers for timely action. This paper aims to illustrate the use of real-time operational research and discuss how to make it happen. Four case studies are presented from the field of tuberculosis. These include (i) mis-registration of recurrent tuberculosis in Malawi; (ii) HIV testing and adjunctive cotrimoxazole to reduce mortality in TB patients in Malawi; (iii) screening TB patients for diabetes mellitus in India; and (iv) mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on TB case detection in capital cities in Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe. The important ingredients of real-time operational research are sound ethics; relevant research; adherence to international standards of conducting and reporting on research; consideration of comparison groups; timely data collection; dissemination to key stakeholders; capacity building; and funding. Operational research can improve the delivery of established health interventions and ensure the deployment of new interventions as they become available, irrespective of diseases. This is particularly important when public health emergencies, including pandemics, threaten health services.