Evaluation of the tuberculosis surveillance system in Wakiso District

Abstract

Introduction: TB (Tuberculosis) has been a serious problem in Uganda and a lot of effort has been put in place to fight it and this led to creation of the TB surveillance system in Uganda. TB was introduced in Uganda following the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to reduce the prevalence of TB to acceptable levels. TB surveillance was introduced in Wakiso District in the year 2015 but since then there has been no evaluation carried out to establish its existence thus creating a need for this study to be done. Objectives The main objective for this study was: to evaluate the TB surveillance system in Wakiso district and in so doing, generate information that will help the District Health Team improve the implementation of the system. The specific objectives were: to determine the Total TB cases registered (all cases, all forms) from October 2021 to June 2022 and to determine the TB case notification rate for new and relapse TB cases for all forms per 100,000 populations from October 2021 to June 2022. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional study. The data was collected through the review of patients’ archived records. Raw data was then entered into Microsoft Excel and later exported to SPSS for further processing. Results: There was an overall increase in the number of TB cases and also there was a low notification rate for the TB although it was increasing at a slow pace. . Conclusions & Recommendations: The study thus recommend the government and its partners to put aside more funding targeted to the strengthening the TB surveillance system in Uganda with main focus on Wakiso district so as to minimize the morbidity and mortality caused by TB.