Project Name: Active TB Case Finding & TB Treatment – DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment) – short course

Donor: National Tuberculosis Control Program through the Stop TB Partnership – Ghana

Project Time Frame: Since 2010 and ongoing

Partners: Ghana National TB Voice Network, District Hospital TB teams, District Health Directorates

Geographical Scope: Ensuring the integration of services, WAAF reaches to a wide geographical scope with TB related work. Depending on where an HIV activity will take WAAF, TB will also be dealt with and such areas that continue to be covered are:

  • Communities within the Greater Accra Region
  • Communities within the Western Region
  • Communities within the Brong Ahafo Region

WAAF’s onsite clinic in Haatso in the Greater Accra Region is an accredited DOTs center and provides the full treatment for TB. It also provides laboratory services such as Sputum Smear microscopy as well as Gene x pert testing which is currently done at an external site but soon to be done onsite at the WAAF clinic.

Project Goal/Objective: To ensure no one is left behind when it comes to TB as missing 3 million TB cases a year is unacceptable.

The rationale for the project: Ensuring to contribute to finding the 3 million TB cases that go undiagnosed each year, WAAF ensures to use any evidence-based strategy to find the missing cases. With an onsite clinic, diagnostic TB services are provided but knowing that most cases are at the community level, WAAF goes out to look for them. This is done through contact tracing of index cases that WAAF does in collaboration with various hospital staff, active case finding where during TB education events, sputum of the presumptive case is taken on the spot for analysis and is followed up, linked to treatment and followed up to ensure they adhere to treatment.

Evidence to support the need for the project: Despite all efforts, we know that about 3 million TB cases worldwide continue to go undiagnosed each year leading to high death rates as a result of a condition that is preventable. This is documented constantly by various bodies such as the Stop TB Partnership, various TB activists, and many more.  CSOs play an active role to complement the efforts of formal health service delivery points actively looking for such cases.

Progress so far:

  • Over 80,000 people screened for TB
  • 75 cases detected
  • over 85% initiated treatment
  • 78% treatment success rate
  • 45% HIV/TB co-infection