Relationship between education and training activities and tuberculosis case detection in Fiji, 2008–2011 [Short communication]

Abstract

of which 130 are inhabited, some of which are several hundred kilometers from established TB services. The country has a well-developed, comprehensive public health system with three divisions (Central Eastern, Northern and Western Divisions), each with a central hospital. Additional health services are provided through a network of 17 subdivisional hospitals, 78 health centres and 101 nursing stations. 3 Established in 1951, the Fiji NTP has applied the DOTS strategy since 1997. Current Fiji TB guidelines recommend that any person suffering from cough of >2 weeks should submit three sputum specimens for acid-fast bacilli microscopy to one of four laboratories in the country. 4 Patients diagnosed with smearpositive sputum are registered as smear-positive PTB, while those with smear-negative sputum or with symptoms and signs of extra-pulmonary TB are further investigated, registered and treated for TB if the diagnosis is made. All TB patients in Fiji are registered in a TB patient register, one of which is kept in each of the three DOTS centres in each division of the country. Defi nitions of TB are in line with World Health Organization (WHO) TB guidelines. 5 Data on education, awareness and training activities in 2010 and 2011 (training courses, duration of courses, facilitators, trainees) were collected from the quarterly FRCS activity reports and monthly NTP reports. Data on all TB patients (numbers of cases, stratifi ed by type of TB) registered from 2008 to 2011 were collected from the TB patient registers at the three DOTS centres. Information on population estimates for Fiji was obtained from the Health Information Unit, Ministry of Health, Fiji. These data were collected into a structured pro forma between October 2011 and June 2012, and single-entered into an electronic database (Excel, Microsoft, Redwoods, WA, USA). Analyses were performed in relation to the introduction of the education, awareness and training activities, i.e., before (2008 and 2009) and during the activities (2010 and 2011). The χ 2 test was used to assess differences in TB case notifi cations before and during the training activities, with odds ratios (ORs), their 95% confi dence intervals (CIs) and P values calculated as appropriate. Differences at the 5% level were regarded as signifi cant.

Latent Tuberculosis Infection Diagnostic and Treatment Cascade among Contacts in Primary Health Care in a City of Sao Paulo State, Brazil: Cross-Sectional Study

“…Active case finding for both active TB and LTBI among contacts has been acknowledged as an important way to identify contacts who could be receiving treatment for LTBI, although this routine has not been incorporated in Brazilian contexts [ 15 , 16 , 21 , 37 , 38 ]. Therefore, the healthcare team has to be prepared to carry out systematic effective health education strategies, as exemplified by intervention trials in Fiji [ 39 ] and Nigeria [ 40 ], which identified a significant impact in the contact investigation after community interventions [ 39 , 40 ].…”

Trained Community Volunteers Improve Tuberculosis Knowledge and Attitudes Among Adults in a Periurban Community in Southwest Nigeria

“…Moreover, previous studies assessing TB case detection had much longer intervention timeframes that extended into several years. [9][10][11] Second, this study used self-reported means to determine preventive practices, which are subject to respondents' desire to provide socially desirable answers. Third, the level of exposure to the community intervention for each of the post-intervention respondents was not ascertained objectively; therefore, knowledge change vis-à-vis level of exposure could not be assessed.…”

“…8 Successes in TB case detection and subsequent treatment have been documented when community care providers have been trained to provide community TB care. [9][10][11] Specifically, programs that used CVs observed comparable successes with programs that used health workers. 12,13 However, there is a dearth of information from intervention studies with outcome indicators that include change in community TB knowledge, attitude, and preventive practices after training community care providers.…”

Poor adherence to TB diagnosis guidelines among under-five children with severe acute malnutrition in central India: A missed window of opportunity?

“…Various studies have suggested capacity building of TB programme staff can significantly improve the TB outcomes [47][48][49][50][51]. Despite increase in expenditure towards training programmes in middle and low income countries, its robust evaluation is needed [52].…”