People at risk of TB have a right to TB screening and diagnostic testing in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended standard of care. Yet, access to these critical tools is limited in many countries with high burdens of TB. Treatment Action Group (TAG) and the Coalition of Women Living with HIV and AIDS (COWLHA) hosted this webinar on how community-led monitoring (CLM) can be used to assess, document, and improve the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of local TB screening and diagnostic services.

This virtual event, From Evidence to Action: Community-led Monitoring for Access to TB Screening and Diagnostic Testing, included three presentations followed by a facilitated discussion, moderated by Solange Baptiste, Executive Director of ITPC. You may download these presentations as a PDF, and the webinar recording is below.

 

Included in the presentations pdf:

“WHO Recommendations for TB Screening and Diagnostic Testing: A Benchmark for Monitoring Access” by David Branigan, TAG“

 

 

“Implementing CLM for Access to TB Screening and Diagnostic Testing to Generate Evidence for Advocacy” by Harry Madukani, COWLHA

 

 

“Impact of Rapid Molecular Testing at the Point of Care: XPEL-TB Trial Results” by Dr. Achilles Katamba, Makerere University College of Health Sciences

 

 

 

The CLM framework developed by COWLHA was piloted at three health facilities in Malawi, allowing community researchers to expose and work to remedy gaps in access to TB screening and diagnostic testing, including a continued reliance on smear microscopy rather than WHO-recommended rapid molecular tests to diagnose TB.

The XPEL-TB trial in Uganda illustrates why access to rapid and accurate TB testing at the point of care matters: the study found that access to on-site rapid molecular testing, plus improvements in implementation, led to a 56% increase in the number of people diagnosed with and treated for TB within 14 days of presenting for care.