Results of the community – based intervention for the prevention and control of TB in Go Vap district, Ho Chi Minh city, 2014

Abstract

     The research employed a quasi-experimental, community-based intervention design which was applied to 646 tuberculosis patients from April 2014 to May 2015. The control population consisted of all TB patients treated in Go Vap district, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), between 2012 and 2013. The objective was to reduce treatment drop out rate, increase treatment success rate and the number of new TB cases detected in the community. The intervention was implemented by a group of health workers engaged in active outreach to households to conduct TB screening and counseling, to increase case detection via public-private partnership in health, and to provide care and follow-up for TB patients in the community. The results showed an increase of sputum exams by 75.1%, an increase in new case enrollments by 17.3%, an increase in treatment success rate by nine percentage points (efficiency index 10.8%), a decline in default rate to 0.5% (efficiency index 93%) and a decline in mortality rate by 0.3 percentage points (efficiency index 10.3%). Therefore, increasing active outreach for TB screening and counseling, and providing patient care in the community can increase detection and treatment success, and decrease drop out rate, subsequently decreasing TB incidence and mortality rates.