Experience of active tuberculosis case finding in nearly 5 million households in India

Active case finding detected a large number of persons with presumptive pulmonary TB and smear-positive TB

Abstract

In India, to increase TB case detection under the National Tuberculosis Programme, active case finding was implemented by the Global Fund-supported Project Axshya, among high-risk groups in 300 districts.

Between April 2013 and December 2014, 4.9 million households covering 20 million people were visited. Of 350, 047 presumptive pulmonary TB cases identified, 187, 586 (54%) underwent sputum smear examination and 14 447 (8%) were found to be smear-positive.

Active case finding resulted in the detection of a large number of persons with presumptive pulmonary TB and smear-positive TB. Ensuring sputum examination of all those with presumptive TB was a major challenge.

This research was supported by the UK Department for International Development’s Operational Research Capacity Building Programme led by the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (The Union)

Citation

B. M. Prasad, S. Satyanarayana, S. S. Chadha, A. Das, B. Thapa, S. Mohanty, S. Pandurangan, E. R. Babu, J. Tonsing, and K. S. Sachdeva. Experience of active tuberculosis case finding in nearly 5 million households in India. Public Health Action. 2016 Mar 21; 6(1): 15–18. doi: 10.5588/pha.15.0035

Experience of active tuberculosis case finding in nearly 5 million households in India

Published 25 January 2016