Engaging Informal Private Health Care Providers for TB Case Detection: Experiences from RIPEND Project in India
Background. Informal (unqualified) health care providers are an important source of medical care for persons with presumptive TB (PPTB) in India. A project (titled RIPEND) was implemented to engage informal providers for the identification of PPTBs and TB patients in 4 districts of Telangana State,...
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doaj-2279a34bad444994a16ab4f77941cab62021-07-05T00:02:03ZengHindawi LimitedTuberculosis Research and Treatment2090-15182021-01-01202110.1155/2021/9579167Engaging Informal Private Health Care Providers for TB Case Detection: Experiences from RIPEND Project in IndiaSantosha Kelamane0Srinath Satyanarayana1Sharath Burugina Nagaraja2Vikas Panibatla3Ramesh Dasari4null Rajeesham5Amera Khan6Vishnuvardhan Kamineni7TB Alert IndiaIndependent Public Health ConsultantESIC Medical College and PGIMSRTB Alert IndiaTB Alert IndiaState TB OfficeStop TB PartnershipStop TB PartnershipBackground. Informal (unqualified) health care providers are an important source of medical care for persons with presumptive TB (PPTB) in India. A project (titled RIPEND) was implemented to engage informal providers for the identification of PPTBs and TB patients in 4 districts of Telangana State, India, during October 2018-December 2019 project period. Engagement involved sensitizing the informal providers about TB, providing them financial incentives to identify PPTBs, and linking these PPTBs to diagnostic and treatment services provided by the Government of India’s National TB Elimination Programme. Objectives. To describe (a) the characteristics of the informal providers, along with their self-reported practices on TB diagnosis, treatment, and challenges encountered by the RIPEND project staff in engaging them in the project and (b) the outputs and outcomes of this engagement. Methods. We used a combination of one-on-one interviews with informal providers, group interviews with RIPEND project staff, and secondary analysis of data available within the project’s recording and reporting systems. Results. A total of 555 informal providers were actively engaged under the project. The majority (87%) had a nonmedicine-related graduate degree and had been providing medical care for more than 10 years. Most (95%) were aware that a cough for 2 weeks or more is a symptom of pulmonary TB and that such patients should be referred for sputum-smear microscopy at a government health facility. Challenges in engaging the informal providers included motivating them to participate in the study, suboptimal mobile usage for referral services, and delays in providing financial incentives to them for referring PPTBs. During the project period (October 2018-December 2019), 8342 PPTBs were identified of which 1003 TB patients were detected and linked to TB treatment services. Conclusion. This project showed that engaging informal providers is feasible and that a large number of PPTB and TB patients can be identified through this effort. The Government of India should consider engaging informal providers for the early diagnosis of TB to reduce the missing TB cases in the country.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/9579167 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Santosha Kelamane Srinath Satyanarayana Sharath Burugina Nagaraja Vikas Panibatla Ramesh Dasari null Rajeesham Amera Khan Vishnuvardhan Kamineni |
spellingShingle |
Santosha Kelamane Srinath Satyanarayana Sharath Burugina Nagaraja Vikas Panibatla Ramesh Dasari null Rajeesham Amera Khan Vishnuvardhan Kamineni Engaging Informal Private Health Care Providers for TB Case Detection: Experiences from RIPEND Project in India Tuberculosis Research and Treatment |
author_facet |
Santosha Kelamane Srinath Satyanarayana Sharath Burugina Nagaraja Vikas Panibatla Ramesh Dasari null Rajeesham Amera Khan Vishnuvardhan Kamineni |
author_sort |
Santosha Kelamane |
title |
Engaging Informal Private Health Care Providers for TB Case Detection: Experiences from RIPEND Project in India |
title_short |
Engaging Informal Private Health Care Providers for TB Case Detection: Experiences from RIPEND Project in India |
title_full |
Engaging Informal Private Health Care Providers for TB Case Detection: Experiences from RIPEND Project in India |
title_fullStr |
Engaging Informal Private Health Care Providers for TB Case Detection: Experiences from RIPEND Project in India |
title_full_unstemmed |
Engaging Informal Private Health Care Providers for TB Case Detection: Experiences from RIPEND Project in India |
title_sort |
engaging informal private health care providers for tb case detection: experiences from ripend project in india |
publisher |
Hindawi Limited |
series |
Tuberculosis Research and Treatment |
issn |
2090-1518 |
publishDate |
2021-01-01 |
description |
Background. Informal (unqualified) health care providers are an important source of medical care for persons with presumptive TB (PPTB) in India. A project (titled RIPEND) was implemented to engage informal providers for the identification of PPTBs and TB patients in 4 districts of Telangana State, India, during October 2018-December 2019 project period. Engagement involved sensitizing the informal providers about TB, providing them financial incentives to identify PPTBs, and linking these PPTBs to diagnostic and treatment services provided by the Government of India’s National TB Elimination Programme. Objectives. To describe (a) the characteristics of the informal providers, along with their self-reported practices on TB diagnosis, treatment, and challenges encountered by the RIPEND project staff in engaging them in the project and (b) the outputs and outcomes of this engagement. Methods. We used a combination of one-on-one interviews with informal providers, group interviews with RIPEND project staff, and secondary analysis of data available within the project’s recording and reporting systems. Results. A total of 555 informal providers were actively engaged under the project. The majority (87%) had a nonmedicine-related graduate degree and had been providing medical care for more than 10 years. Most (95%) were aware that a cough for 2 weeks or more is a symptom of pulmonary TB and that such patients should be referred for sputum-smear microscopy at a government health facility. Challenges in engaging the informal providers included motivating them to participate in the study, suboptimal mobile usage for referral services, and delays in providing financial incentives to them for referring PPTBs. During the project period (October 2018-December 2019), 8342 PPTBs were identified of which 1003 TB patients were detected and linked to TB treatment services. Conclusion. This project showed that engaging informal providers is feasible and that a large number of PPTB and TB patients can be identified through this effort. The Government of India should consider engaging informal providers for the early diagnosis of TB to reduce the missing TB cases in the country. |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/9579167 |
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