<span style="font-family:Verdana;">The act of referring TB presumptive individuals after verbal screening to another health facility/diagnostic centres for testing often results in large loss to follow...<span style="font-family:Verdana;">The act of referring TB presumptive individuals after verbal screening to another health facility/diagnostic centres for testing often results in large loss to follow-up, owing to the many barriers people face in accessing care. The transportation of sputum samples is an efficient method of increasing access to tuberculosis (TB) diagnostics in areas where testing is not currently available. One of the major reasons for the low yield of TB cases in the field was delay in sputum sample transportation to diagnostic laboratories among other factors. Damien Foundation Belgium, carried out a unique sputum riders initiatives in 20 LGAs of Lagos state between Q3-2019 and Q4-2020. A total of 25 sputum dispatch riders across the 20 LGAs in the State who are monitored routinely on an electronic dashboard were engaged for sputum logistics. Therefore, this report highlights how the initiatives ha</span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">ve </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">contributed to increased TB case notification in a densely populated metropolitan city in Nigeria. </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Overall, </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">48,265 units of sputum samples were transported to the laboratory from the facilities 99.9% of results </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">which </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">were received from the laboratory by the dispatch riders</span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">. </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">The contribution of sputum riders to the overall TB case detection by the project progressively increased from 9% when the intervention began to 57% as at Q4 2020. The transportation of sputum samples by motorcycle dispatch riders is an efficient method of increasing access to TB diagnostic services in communities where testing is not currently available.</span>展开更多
文摘<span style="font-family:Verdana;">The act of referring TB presumptive individuals after verbal screening to another health facility/diagnostic centres for testing often results in large loss to follow-up, owing to the many barriers people face in accessing care. The transportation of sputum samples is an efficient method of increasing access to tuberculosis (TB) diagnostics in areas where testing is not currently available. One of the major reasons for the low yield of TB cases in the field was delay in sputum sample transportation to diagnostic laboratories among other factors. Damien Foundation Belgium, carried out a unique sputum riders initiatives in 20 LGAs of Lagos state between Q3-2019 and Q4-2020. A total of 25 sputum dispatch riders across the 20 LGAs in the State who are monitored routinely on an electronic dashboard were engaged for sputum logistics. Therefore, this report highlights how the initiatives ha</span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">ve </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">contributed to increased TB case notification in a densely populated metropolitan city in Nigeria. </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Overall, </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">48,265 units of sputum samples were transported to the laboratory from the facilities 99.9% of results </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">which </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">were received from the laboratory by the dispatch riders</span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">. </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">The contribution of sputum riders to the overall TB case detection by the project progressively increased from 9% when the intervention began to 57% as at Q4 2020. The transportation of sputum samples by motorcycle dispatch riders is an efficient method of increasing access to TB diagnostic services in communities where testing is not currently available.</span>
