Government unveils tool to track TB cases

The government yesterday nveiled tools to fast-track identification and examination of Tuberculosis symptoms even as the country faces a growing challenge of drug-resistant TB (DRTB).

In 2021, only 756 cases of DRTB were diagnosed and reported, further raising fears that many Kenyans could be freely infecting a bigger population.

However, even as the government grapples with the problem, it hopes to use the Tuberculosis Diagnosis Network Assessment (DNA) tool – which it unveiled recently – to enable it track and bring an estimated 42,560 TB cases for diagnosis and notification.

Data from the Ministry of Health shows that an estimated 133,000 people fell ill with TB in 2022. However, 90,841 about 68 per cent of these cases were diagnosed and notified, an increase of 16.6 per cent from 2021.

Health Principal Secretary in charge of Public Health and Professional Standards, Dr Josephine Mburu said there is urgent need to trace the 32 percent of about 42,560 of the estimated cases of TB that were missed in 2022.

“This therefore calls for innovative and effective strategies to diagnose TB,” she said in the weekend in a statement delivered by Dr Joseph Lenai, the Director of International Health Relations and Health Sector Coordination at the MoH, when the DNA was launched.

The PS described the unveiling of the DNA as timely and crucial for assessing the TB diagnostic gaps and providing recommendations for further improvement.

Globally, in 2021, approximately 10.6 million people developed TB, of which 1.2 million 11 percent were children. The number of reported TB deaths increased from 1.5 million in 2020 to 1.6 million in 2021.

Mburu said the Ministry of Health is committed to ending TB as outlined in the National Strategic Plan.

“The Ministry further supports and recommends the use of evidence-based and data-driven interventions to guide policy decisions and program implementation at national and county levels,” she said.

She noted that as part of the government’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agenda, access to timely, quality-assured TB diagnosis is expected for all patients engaging with the health system across all sectors.

Diagnostic network

However, Mburu noted that challenges in the TB diagnostic landscape continue to hinder this access and impact the progress towards finding the missed TB cases.

“The TB diagnosis network assessment sets a precedent that can be emulated by other disease programs to effectively identify and develop data-informed strategic solutions to address the overall public health challenges in the country,” the PS stated.

She said the ministry will be looking forward to the findings and recommendations from the TB DNA, in order to inform its national policies, guide resource mobilisation and improve universal access to and availability of quality diagnostic tools across the country.

Acting Health Director-General, the Ministry of Health, Dr. Patrick Amoth, said there is a need to improve access to quality diagnostic solutions for TB, including progressively increasing access to WHO-recommended rapid diagnostic tests (WRD). This is the initial diagnostic test for confirming TB in adults and children.

In a speech read by Dr Immaculate Kathure, head of the National TB Program (NTP), Dr Amoth noted that the ministry has made tremendous gains in addressing the burden of TB by adopting evidence-based interventions to address the major challenges across the cascade of care.

“However, there is still work to be done to improve access to and availability of quality diagnostic tools across the country for TB,” he said.

For the country to successfully identify and treat the missed cases of TB, Dr Amoth revealed that the existing diagnostic footprint in the country includes a variety of TB molecular and microscopy testing solutions, which testifies to the progress the country continues to achieve towards TB control.

Through the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Ministry will conduct a diagnostic network assessment exercise, which is aimed at identifying gaps and opportunities for improving the TB diagnostic network in the country.

The exercise will cover all levels of the TB diagnostic network from the point of patient care to the referral laboratory level, he said.

“We are, however, looking forward to the findings and recommendations from this exercise and commit to support the adoption of the recommendations to improve programming and achieve the overall goal of ending TB in Kenya.

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