Organisation: Foundation for Development and Relief Africa (FIDRA)

Project contact: Ocen Ivan Kenneth

Two years of finding missing TB cases, and improving TB treatment and TB prevention in Remote Rural Communities in Uganda

Tuberculosis (TB) is still a major public health problem in Uganda. In 2016, the estimated TB incidence rate was 253 per 100,000 population, with 89,000 people becoming infected with TB annually, according to the 2016 Uganda National TB and Leprosy Survey.

Community TB Awareness, Test and Treat Project is an initiative that  provide a unique creation of voluntarily and  accessible TB Screening and treatment to the poor communities dwelling in the remotes and hard to reach rural communities, Raise community awareness on the dangers of TB and other neglected diseases, Identify, promote and enable early diagnosis, adherence to treatment and follow up on all cases of TB patients, Facilitate lifestyle changes that ultimately prevent the onset of these diseases and Train community TB health workers, ambassadors, and educators to monitor, respond and improve the quality of life of TB patients in rural communities of Northern Uganda.

Technical assistance was needed to find missing cases of TB, increase TB treatment success rates, and strengthen TB prevention to end the TB epidemic in Uganda. For example, out of an estimated 1,736 multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB cases, only 516 were detected, according to the 2016 survey.

FIDRA’s Community TB Awareness, Test and Treat Project was a 2 years project with a central goal of increasing TB case detection and treatment success to 90% of all cases to end the TB epidemic in rural communities of Northern Uganda.

FIDRA’s Community TB Awareness, Test and Treat Project also contributed to increased advocacy activities, including stakeholder engagement, local coordination committee meetings, and annual conferences.

TB operations research, knowledge management, and improving District TB policy: FIDRA facilitated development of community TB meetings, developed and scaled up change packages using continuous quality improvement approaches for actively finding missing TB patients, improving treatment success rates, accelerating preventative therapy initiation, improving patient retention, and authoring community TB activity implementation.

Two years in Numbers

• 2,542 rural communities sensitized, 692 screened and tested and 85 treated for TB
• 25 community TB educators and  ambassadors  trained and re-training, monitoring and following up on TB clients within their rural communities
• 25 awareness campaigns on TB
• 10 community TB ambassadors identifying victims and connecting them to early screening and treatment
• 15 community outreaches conducted  on TB screening, testing and treatment

Challenges

• The total number of turn up for TB Awareness, Testing and Treatment continue to be overwhelming despite outreaches taken to remote rural communities
• Transportation to clients household for routine check and follow ups

Recommendation

We have procured and donated two bicycles to our community TB educators to deliver services to the clients. We recommend CHCT support us to procure 4 more additional bicycles to support community service workers with delivering their activities in the hard to reach communities.

As we prepare for the Christmas and Official Launch of FIDRA’s New Home.  We would like to thanks you a lot for the support we wish to continue working with you in the coming years.