Author(s)

Oluremilekun Comfort Kusimo^1*, Richard Olukolade¹, Queen Ogbuji¹, John Osho¹, Adeyinka Onikan¹, Abiodun Hassan¹, Oladapo Alabi Ladipo¹, Oladipo Owoyomi², Joseph Bakare², Simeon Onyemaechi³, Adebola Lawanson³

¹Programs Unit, Association for Reproductive and Family Health, Abuja, Nigeria.
²Programs Unit, Health Alive Foundation, Ilorin, Nigeria.
³Department of Public Health, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme, Abuja, Nigeria.

Introduction: Tuberculosis remains a major public health issue in Nigeria with the country ranking seventh among the 30 high TB burden countries. Nigeria is among the three countries that account for half of the 4.3 million “missing” TB cases globally. One untreated TB case is able to infect about 10 - 20 people annually. Hence, it is pertinent that TB is controlled effectively through the use of active case finding strategies to find the missing TB cases. Objective: This article highlights the best practices and key lessons learnt during the implementation of the active house to house TB case finding strategy in Nigeria. Lessons Learnt and Recommendations: Strategic community engagement, massive awareness creation using mass media and local means of communication, mapping of locations where registered TB cases live, to inform home visits for contact tracing and strengthening of laboratory systems, are viable mechanisms to improve TB case finding. Conclusion: Active TB case finding interventions should be implemented in the context of a strengthened diagnostics system, strategic community engagement and media involvement.

Active Case Finding, Tuberculosis, Lessons Learnt, Community Engagement

Kusimo, O. , Olukolade, R. , Ogbuji, Q. , Osho, J. , Onikan, A. , Hassan, A. , Ladipo, O. , Owoyomi, O. , Bakare, J. , Onyemaechi, S. and Lawanson, A. (2018) Implementation of the Active TB Case Finding in Nigeria; Processes, Lessons Learnt and Recommendations. Journal of Tuberculosis Research, 6, 10-18. doi: 10.4236/jtr.2018.61002.