TY  - BOOK
AU  - Yesaya, Mwasubila. K
AU  - Benson Kidenya
AU  - Reginald S. Sauve
TI  - Assessment of uptake of contact screening and isoniazid preventive therapy administration among children under five exposed to an index case of tuberculosis in selected health facilities of mbeya region
PY  - 2015///
CY  - Mwanza, Tanzania:  
PB  - Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences CUHAS - Bugando
KW  -  
N2  - Abstract: 

Background: Uptake or implementation of contact screening and Isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) possess big challenges globally especially among 22 high TB burden countries including Tanzania. World Health Organization (WHO) recommends contact screening and IPT initiation among children under five whose are exposed to smear positive Tuberculosis (TB), but this strategy is rarely implemented and the uptake may vary from one country to another. Household contact screening of children in our health facilities is not given priority and it is not clear why children underfive are not screened for TB and if so, to what extent? There is limited data on this particular area.

Study objective: The main objective was to assess uptake of contact screening and IPT administration and associated factors among children under five who are exposed to adult smear positive TB patients diagnosed in the period between months of January – August 2015 in selected health facilities of Mbeya region.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study and involved simple selected health facilities in Mbeya region. Study population was children under five exposed to smear positive adult TB patients (index cases) registered for TB treatment in health facilities. The adult TB patients to participate in the interview were picked using treatment card (TB-02) which indicates the type and category of TB patient. Those diagnosed with positive sputum smear were asked to participate in the study. The index cases were interviewed at TB clinic pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires with open and closed questions. The data were entered in excel sheet, cleaned and analyzed using STATA version 11.0

Results: A total of 257 index cases enrolled in TB clinics in the selected health facilities of Mbeya region diagnosed between periods of January – August, 2015 participated in the interview. A total of 433 contacts were found, only 31 (7.2%) of them had ever screened for TB and 8 (1.8%) received IPT. Majority of index cases, 175 (68.1%) out of 257 were not informed at the clinic about the need of their children for screening and only, 82 (31.9%) had ever informed. Those who were informed, 25 (30.5%) screened their children more compared to those who were not informed, only one (0.6%), P-value<10.001).

Conclusion: The uptake of contact screening and IPT among children underfive who are exposed to smear positive pulmonary TB patients in the region is sub-optimal. The main reason contributing for it is that the TB patients are not informed by health care workers on importance of screening their children.

ER  -