Busia County Department of Health in partnership with Impact Research Organization has conducted a three days cross-border TB screening to help in identifying TB whose case identification rate remains low.
Speaking during the exercise at the border point, Busia County TB and Leprosy Coordinator Mary Aseyong said there were unidentified cases of TB and the cross-border screening would help identify them.
“Our TB case burden is at 1381 cases for 2024 translating to a case notification rate of 138 TB per 100,000 populations. This is still low and it shows we are not doing well as a county in terms of case notification. The country’s expected case notification rate for TB is 426 per 100,000 populations. This means we are still missing out on a good number of TB patients.
Aseyong noted that the TB death rate remained high at 7.5 percent compared to the expected 3 percent success treatment rate.
“We target to treat 92 percent of those cases we diagnose but as a county, we are doing at 86.5 percent which is below the expected target for treatment success rate,” she said.
She further stated that the interventions like active case finding within the community would help them to diagnose the cases early.
“Early diagnosis will enable us to initiate the treatment and this will increase our chances of getting a successful treatment and that is why we are embracing such interventions so that we can improve our TB indicators in the county,” she said.
Busia County Chief Officer for Public Health and Sanitation Susan Outa said cross-border screening has helped in identifying TB cases in the county adding that TB treatment would be initiated to those that would be identified.
“From our last year’s cases, 4 percent were coming from the cross-border screening that we did at the border. We chose at the border because of the mobile population that is here and also the unique health seeking behaviour of people who are passing here. Those who will be found to be positive with TB will be put on anti-TB treatment,” she said.
The initiative aligns with the National Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Lung Health 2023/2024- 2027/28 which aims to achieve the 2030 TB elimination in the country.
By Rodgers Omondi
