Kericho Steps Up War Against Drug Resistant TB

Oct 17, 2023 - 12:15

Kericho TB coordinator Ms. Elizabeth Kirui (in red), flanked by other health workers at the Kericho County Referral Hospital, conducting TB sensitization and screening.

Kericho,

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

KNA by Kibe Mburu

The adoption of evidence-based and data-driven interventions in policy decisions in the fight against Tuberculosis (TB) is deemed to yield remarkable results that could surpass key impact indicators for TB.

According to the Kericho TB Coordinator Ms. Elizabeth Kirui, Kericho is among Counties selected to participate in the National TB program Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (DRTB) Survey to determine the prevalence of anti TB drug resistance in Kenya.

Current data indicates that Kericho County diagnoses around 2000 Tuberculosis cases annually with persistence of TB in the county attributed to lack to follow ups and poor health seeking behaviour in the community due to stigma.

The TB coordinator revealed that Kericho County TB prevalence rate currently stands at 219 per 100,000 people noting that there was an 8 per cent increase of Drug Sensitive Tuberculosis (DSTB) in the year 2022 compared to 2021 while Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (DRTB) reduced from 19 cases in 2021 to 12 cases in 2022.

She further pointed out that the County continues to rank highly among Counties progressing well in the fight against TB having taken proactive measures to enhance diagnosis by widely adopting and scaling up the use Active Case Finding strategy whereby all patients are screened for TB using a standardized screening questionnaire which is incorporated into existing Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or improvised rubber stamps in absence of EMR.

"Active Case Finding is conducted both in public and private health facilities and those with symptoms are subjected to sputum test or x-ray services." Said Ms. Kirui.

At the same time, the medic mentioned that Kericho County has 56 diagnostics sites distributed across six Sub-Counties equipped with four Superior machines (3 expert machines and 1 truenat), which have the ability to detect anti Tuberculosis resistance at an early stage.

"In order to find the missing cases, the county combines Active Case Finding and Contact Management Activities,” said Ms. Kirui.

In addition, she said the County has 86 TB treatment sites linked to a Community Health Unit (CHU) with all the bacteriologically confirmed TB cases attached to Community Health Promoters (CHPs) who play an instrumental role in Primary Healthcare at household level.

Additionally, she said the Community Health Promoters also help in tracing of drug interrupters among the TB patients, by keenly following up on patients to ensure they strictly adhere to prescribed directions on use of drugs.

"The TB department also, occasionally carries out targeted sensitizations and screening in schools, communities and workplaces depending on the need. County Healthcare workers also undergo TB screening twice every year." said Ms. Kirui.

According to Ms Kirui, in order to combat TB stigma, the department has encouraged the formation of support groups for Drug Sensitive Tuberculosis (DSTB), TB/HIV and Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (DRTB) patients who meet on a quarterly basis to share their experiences.

"Kericho County was recently ranked number one Nationally in TB control" Ms. Kirui disclosed.

She attributed the milestone in the fight against TB to the strong coordination and management support for TB essential services that ensure continuity of services right from the National to the community and vice versa.

According to Ms. Kirui, "The County Health Services Department has enhanced capacity building through trainings, mentorships and continuous medical education to its staff on integrated TB and prevention."

The Medic also said Kericho County has been able to achieve tremendous milestones in TB management and control through collaboration with partners (NEPHAK and Walter Reed Pepfar) who have played a key role in transporting samples to testing sites by trained skilled motor riders in both public and private facilities.

"Our Lady of Perpetual Support (OLPS) supports community TB activities and free X- Ray services from ages 0-14 years to aid in pediatric diagnosis, while TB ARC 11 supports TB in place." added Ms. Kirui.

Tuberculosis continues to be a global public health concern with Kenya being among the high burden countries.

TB is a bacterial infection transmitted from one person to the other person through the air by inhalation of droplets released by an infected person by coughing, sneezing, laughing, spitting or singing.

Courtesy; KNA