Active tuberculosis case finding in India - The way forward

Community based active case finding (ACF) for tuberculosis (TB) has seen resurrection in the current armamentarium of many TB managers in their fight toward eliminating TB. This article explores the accuracy and approximate cost of various ACF algorithms currently in vogue in India or those which could be useful, while inputting the sensitivity and specificity of screening and diagnostic tools as estimated from recently conducted community based surveys. This analysis informs that ACF may be prioritized to higher prevalence settings and the diagnostic algorithm for specific setting may be chosen taking into account the expected prevalence, estimated accuracy of the algorithm and resource availability. Further, chest X-ray cannot be used alone as a diagnostic tool and can be relied upon for this purpose when at least one of the three sputum specimen is smear positive. Accuracy of Xpert MTB/RIF as a diagnostic tool in community situations needs to be investigated further. The review brings out significant proportions of initial default and default during treatment among cases detected through ACF thus emphasizing the need for heightened efforts toward preventing the same. The article rounds off emphasizing priority to addressing barriers to speedy scale up of more sensitive diagnostic tools for health center based case finding including in private sector and ACF in high risk clinical groups for early and efficient case detection. It concludes by putting forth certain research areas that would strengthen future efforts.