TB/HIV: COLLABORATION YIELDS INCREASED IDENTIFICATION, TREATMENT OF CLIENTS

17 Feb TB/HIV: COLLABORATION YIELDS INCREASED IDENTIFICATION, TREATMENT OF CLIENTS

The Situation before the intervention:

There was weak synergy between HIV and TB programs in Kaduna State resulting in sub-optimal HIV screening amongst tuberculosis patients. There were also poor records of HIV co-infected patients on TB treatment in facilities not supported by Center for Integrated Health Programs (CIHP) and no functional technical working group on TB/HIV.

The intervention:

In 2020, CIHP partnered with the Kaduna State TB Leprosy Control Program to revitalize and strengthen the State Technical Working Group to provide overall coordination for the TB/HIV program in the state and foster synergy.

Afterwards, CIHP built the capacity of the Local Government Authority Tuberculosis Leprosy (TBL) Supervisors and DOTS Officers on TB/HIV data management. We instituted monthly data collation and validation meetings thereby strengthening review and validation of TB/HIV data from all facilities providing TB-DOTS services in the state.

With the establishment of a quarterly data quality and review meeting, stakeholders regularly discussed to address emerging program issues. Publishing a directory of tuberculosis and HIV service providers also strengthened linkage between the 55 HIV treatment and 866 TB-treatment health facilities. CIHP further conducted refresher training to strengthen the capacity of the TB/DOTS Officers on the management of both TB and HIV patients across all health facilities.

The results:

In 2019 prior to the intervention, the state recorded an achievement of identifying and treating 78% of expected cases of TB and HIV co-infected persons.

Following commencement of the intervention, there has been a steady improvement in the identification of TB and HIV co-infected individuals initiated on dual treatment to 630 (94%) in 2020, 1,120 (131%) in 2021 and 1,121 (237%) in 2022.

Effective collaboration between the TB and HIV treatment programs in the state is essential for high quality management of TB/HIV co-infected patients as well as data management.  Kaduna state is now adjudged to be the best performing state in TB case notification among PLHIV across the 19 US-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supported states in Nigeria.