WORLD TB DAY 2022 AT THE SOCIETY FOR FAMILY HEALTH

The Society for family health joined the global community in the commemoration of World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, on March 24^th , by carrying out outreaches in ten communities in Kano State. Key activities during the outreaches included community sensitization on TB, screening of over 1370 persons and other relevant follow up activities. The outreaches provided opportunities to engage gatekeepers and community influencers to seek their further support for TB programming. In line with the national slogan for the year (which is Give more, Do More, End TB now), the team conducted advocacy for support to ending TB Stigma, more community support and care for persons infected or affected by TB and also policy to ensure community mobilization for screening.

Data input of community outreaches carried out in Kano State

The commemoration also continued at the Society for Family Health headquarters in Abuja. At the HQ a sensitization session on TB and a screening exercise was conducted. During the sensitization session Mr Godpower Omoregie, Practice Area Lead, HIV&TB, SFH in his speech noted that Nigeria is the 6th country in the world with the highest burden of TB and accounts for 4.4% of global missing TB cases.

A total of sixty-eight staff members were screened at the Society for Family Health HQ out of which seventeen were presumptive. However, the seventeen presumptive cases turned out negative upon laboratory analysis.

SFH Engagement in TB

• CIHPAC Project funded by USAID: Conducting Screening for TB during HTS, referrals and linkage services working through 56 indigenous CBOs across 22 states in Nigeria
• o Global Fund HIV Project: Conducting Screening for TB during HTS, referrals and linkage services working with in 15 Health Facilities each (5 PHCs and 3 SHF) in the 36states across the country
•  SHiPS For MARPS funded by USAID: Conducting Screening for TB during HTS, referrals and linkage services through the One-Stop Shops (OSS) facilities in 8states
• KP-CARE-2 funded by USAID: Conducting Screening for TB during HTS, referrals and linkage services through the One-Stop Shops (OSS) facilities across 5 Northern states
•  TB-SHOPS funded by USAID: Pioneered the availability of quality TB services in the private sector by improving flow of persons with presumptive TB into detection and treatment systems and strengthen health systems to foster and sustain public private mix (PPM) models for TB care. As of December 2019, SFH supports delivery of quality TB services through 638 private facility providers made up of: 107 private health clinics, 31 private laboratories, 26 CPs and 474 PPMVs.
•  TB-LONs 1,2 and 3 funded by USAID: Working in Consortium with the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria (IHVN) as sub- recipient; is responsible for coordinating the implementation of innovative Community level strategies on the TB-LON 3 project in Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Kano States. The implementing entities are Equitable Health Access Initiative (EHAI) and Health Alive Foundation (HAF).
•  ICHSSA 3 funded by USAID: Working with CBOs to promote HIV/TB case finding, linkage and treatment services among children and adolescents in Kano and Niger states.
•  LAFIYA YARAN Project funded by AIDSFONDS: promoting and strengthening the use of existing community structures to promote HIV/TB case finding, linkage and treatment services among pregnant women, children (peadiatrics) and adolescents in Taraba and River states.
•  IntegratE Project: funded by BMGF: Working with Pharmacies and PPMVs to pilot the integration of TB screening, case findings and referrals and linkage to treatment services in the two most populous states in Nigeria.

Through our Global Fund HIV Project, TB LON 1,2, & 3 project, Lafiyan Yara project, IntegratE project, and several other projects SFH continues to make great contributions towards the elimination of TB in Nigeria.