South african national tb program

Individual TB patients are not assigned a unique TB number; therefore it is not possible to link information if a patient is listed twice after seeking care at more than one facility. Schematic of the TB Surveillance System, including identified challenges that may compromise the completeness and reliability of recording and reporting TB disease, South Africa.

These findings suggest that one third of persons diagnosed with TB are not started on treatment or notified of their disease. Further, the information for persons with a TB record who are being managed at a health facility will differ according to different levels of management and will have different implications for guiding program activities.

Because the ETR is fully implemented, items of information about the same patient on the blue card, the TB register, and all levels of the ETR are expected to be identical and redundant.

The ETR is expected to replace other sources of redundant data except for paper sources at the facility. The sources of the discrepancies identified in the current study are unclear; however, differences between paper sources and the initial ETR may be due to data entry errors or updates made to the ETR without revision or documentation in the paper register. Inconsistencies between levels of the ETR may also be due to information being updated at one level without ensuring other levels of the ETR are updated, or due to problems with the merging process.

It is evident that a well-structured quality control and assurance process is needed to improve the reliability of the TB Surveillance System. The information in the national ETR is the basis for evaluating, prioritizing needs, and allocating resources for the entire NTP and for generating annual statistics. Implementing measures to ensure all persons diagnosed with TB are properly retained and managed, and unifying paper, electronic, and laboratory systems may improve the integrity of the TB Surveillance System and also help to control and prevent the spread of TB in South Africa.

The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the U. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Competing interests. NB and CB led study field teams and were responsible for verifying and monitoring all data collected and monitoring data entry. All authors provided assistance with interpretation of results. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Laura Jean Podewils, Email: vog. Nonkqubela Bantubani, Email: az. Claire Bristow, Email: moc. Liza E Bronner, Email: moc.

Annatjie Peters, Email: vog. Alexander Pym, Email: moc. Lerole David Mametja, Email: az. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U.

BMC Public Health. Published online Aug Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Corresponding author. Received May 22; Accepted Aug 3.

This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Background Accurate surveillance data are paramount to effective TB control. Methods Three of nine provinces, three subdistricts per province, and 54 health facilities were selected by stratified random sampling. Results Over one-third Background Accurate surveillance data are crucial to plan, implement, and evaluate TB control programs.

Methods Study design A retrospective data audit was performed to evaluate the accuracy of the TB Surveillance System for identifying persons with TB disease; the completeness of information from different sources; and the reliability of data from different sources. Study Population and selection of sites The sampling strategy was determined in consultation with the National TB Program. The NTP provides forms to health facilities for recording and reporting information on persons with presumptive TB and persons with TB disease, including the: TB suspect register , a logbook to record baseline information on persons with presumptive TB disease based on NTP Guidelines at the health facilities [ 2 ].

Open in a separate window. Statistical analysis All analyses were conducted using Stata Proportion of TB cases identified and recorded Overall counts were tallied to determine the number of total number of persons with presumptive TB documented in the suspect registers for Quarter 1 at selected facilities, number with sputum results recorded, and number with a positive sputum smear for TB disease.

Completeness The total number of selected patients with a record in each data source was divided by the number of total number of persons with TB to yield a proportion for completeness of records for each source. Reliability Using the subset of TB patients with a record available in all sources, reliability of the actual value recorded for key TB indicators was examined across data sources.

Case detection Using simple counts, a total of persons with presumptive TB were logged in the TB suspect registers at the selected facilities. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis ;15 7 — Miller B, Vranken P. Personal Communication, July — August National data, by province Statistics South Africa.

Statistics South Africa , vol 1. Available at: www. Download references. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the U. Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, U.

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Correspondence to Laura Jean Podewils. NB and CB led study field teams and were responsible for verifying and monitoring all data collected and monitoring data entry. All authors provided assistance with interpretation of results.

All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript. Reprints and Permissions. Podewils, L. BMC Public Health 15, Download citation. Received : 22 May Accepted : 03 August Published : 11 August Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:. Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative. Skip to main content. Search all BMC articles Search.

Download PDF. Abstract Background Accurate surveillance data are paramount to effective TB control. Methods Three of nine provinces, three subdistricts per province, and 54 health facilities were selected by stratified random sampling. Results Over one-third Background Accurate surveillance data are crucial to plan, implement, and evaluate TB control programs.

Methods Study design A retrospective data audit was performed to evaluate the accuracy of the TB Surveillance System for identifying persons with TB disease; the completeness of information from different sources; and the reliability of data from different sources. Study Population and selection of sites The sampling strategy was determined in consultation with the National TB Program.

The NTP provides forms to health facilities for recording and reporting information on persons with presumptive TB and persons with TB disease, including the: Fig. Full size image. Case detection Using simple counts, a total of persons with presumptive TB were logged in the TB suspect registers at the selected facilities. Table 1 Case finding from TB suspect registers in the 54 facilities sampled in the present evaluation, Quarter 1 Full size table.

Table 4 a-o. Discussion The current evaluation revealed that information in different components of the South African National TB Surveillance System is often incomplete and inconsistent. Conclusions These findings suggest that one third of persons diagnosed with TB are not started on treatment or notified of their disease.

References 1. Google Scholar 3. However, there is still a great deal to be done". The Treatment Action Campaign initially refused to accept the plan.

The approach taken in this latest National Strategic Plan is to intensify efforts in the geographic areas that are most affected by TB. In addition the highest impact interventions are to be used in these areas. There is very little mention of drug resistant TB. Comprehensive prevention and care for TB will be provided countrywide but intensified concentrated efforts will be made in the 19 districts with the highest TB burden.

In these high burden districts the aim is a saturation of high impact prevention and treatment services.

Three main targets have been set. This includes both drug susceptible and drug resistant TB. By improving the rates at which people are diagnosed and treated, countries can reduce the spread of TB and reduce incidence.

The contents of any Publications from any studies during this Degree are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the SA MRC or the funders. The financial assistance of the NRF towards this research is hereby acknowledged.

Opinions expressed, and conclusions arrived at, are those of the authors and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF. Seddon, Rory Dunbar, Anneke C. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. All authors contributed towards interpreting the study results. Correspondence to Muhammad Osman or Mareli M.

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If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. Reprints and Permissions. Mortality during tuberculosis treatment in South Africa using an 8-year analysis of the national tuberculosis treatment register. Sci Rep 11, Download citation. Received : 28 December Accepted : 20 July Published : 05 August Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:.

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Download PDF. Methods Context South Africa had an estimated population of Net In South Africa, all patients were presumed to have drug-susceptible TB, unless drug susceptibility testing demonstrated resistance, and were routinely registered in a paper-based register at a TB treatment facility when initiating treatment.

Table 1 Definitions used in the study based on variables recorded within ETR. Net and classified according to the WHO reporting framework. Full size table. Figure 1. Full size image. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4. References 1. Google Scholar 2. Google Scholar 6. Article Google Scholar 7. Google Scholar Article PubMed Google Scholar Article Google Scholar Claassens Authors Muhammad Osman View author publications.

View author publications. Ethics declarations Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Additional information Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information. About this article. Cite this article Osman, M. Copy to clipboard. Comments By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines.

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