Integrating TB screening into house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns

In July 2019, the Anambra State (south-east Nigeria) TB Control Programme implemented the integration of TB case-finding with the polio vaccination campaign with the support of the WHO.

To improve TB case-finding from communities leveraging already existing polio structures.

Vaccination teams were trained to ask for symptoms of TB in each household and to document details of people presumed to have TB. Community TB workers subsequently tracked those identified for subsequent sample collection. We report the numbers detected, and the proportion of wards that reported people with TB. Regression analyses were used to estimate the relationship between ward characteristics and reporting. Odds ratios (ORs) with associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) are also reported.

Of 281 people with presumptive TB, 32 were diagnosed with TB; 21% (70/330) of wards identified at least one presumptive, while 5% (18/330) of the people were identified with TB. Peri-urban slums were most likely to identify presumptives (adjusted OR [aOR] 11.52, 95% CI 1.62-81.79), while Riverine areas were most likely to identify a person with TB (aOR 3.59, 95% CI 1.16-11.01).

Integrating community TB case-finding into house-to-house vaccination campaigns can boost case detection. This approach proved effective in areas perennially underserved by routine healthcare services.