STUDY DETAILS
- Category Current Studies
Ubumi Bwandi Pantanshi: Bringing integrated TB and lung health screening closer to the community.
Using chest xrays to screen people for TB is effective but also identifies many people who do not have TB. In Zambia, with limited resources to establishalternative diagnoses, many people are repeatedly treated for TB or lost. We will deploy novel tools at community and primary health care level to screen forother conditions- a model that could be adapted to many other similar settings.
The Ubumi Bwandi Pantanshi (My health first) project will build on the TB Reach W10 Ubumi Bwandi project in Ndola, Zambia. In the recently completed Ubumi Bwandi project, we have established a community hub linked to a primary health care facility where the whole population are encouraged to attend for annual chest x-ray screening linked to screening for other conditions including non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer screening, mental health and substance use programmes as well as HIV.
This integrated screening model will be continued and expanded. By using chest x-ray as the entry to TB screening, while we have increased TB diagnoses, we have identified many individuals with abnormal CXR in whom we don’t have a diagnosis. It may be as a result of post-TB lung disease (PTLD), other chronic lung conditions, industrial lung disease or infectious episodes, but there is no clear diagnostic pathway for individuals who do not turn out to have TB. Many individuals are presumptively treated with antibiotics or placed on Treatment in the absence of any other credible diagnosis.
We will pilot a new integrated lung health screening protocol for identifying people with presumptive TB and deploy tools such as point of care lung ultrasound, CRP, 6-minute walk test (6MWT), peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), and spirometry to further evaluate for TB and non-TB lung diseases and work closely with the clinic and tertiary hospital to provide links to care and follow-ups.
Partners: Zambart is leading the project and working with the Ministry of Health through the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Programme (NTLP), Ndola District Health Office, Ndola Teaching Hospital (NTH), and Mapalo Clinic, as well as the Occupational Health and Safety Institute (OHSI).
Funder: Stop TB Partnership under TB REACH wave 11
