FRAC0204 | Empowering Health Workers: Integrating Tubercolosis, HIV, and Syphilis Screening to Improve Maternal Health through Community-Led Approaches in Kano State, Nigeria
Husna Baffa1, Adakole Okoh2, Usman Bashir3, Ibrahim Umar4, Bethrand Odume2, Mustapha Tukur1 | 1KNCV Nigeria; 2KNCV, Nigeria; 3Kano State Agency for the control of AIDS, Nigeria; 4Kano State Ministry of Health, Nigeria
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760 Community TB Workers (CTWs), 44 Community Health Volunteers (CHVs), and 283 Mentor Mothers were engaged and trained to conduct screening for TB, HIV, and syphilis through house-to-house visits and outreach activities in slums and among internally displaced persons. CTWs provide TB screening services, while CHVs test pregnant women in the community who are not attending antenatal care for HIV. Mentor mothers ensure complete referrals for HIV-positive pregnant women and provide follow-up care until 18 months postpartum. Data from January–December 2024 was collected and analyzed. The combined efforts of the 1,083 CHWs led to the screening of a total of 324,078 persons for TB, identifying 87,095 presumptive TB cases with 99% of them evaluated; a total of 7,675 new TB cases were diagnosed and enrolled on treatment. Of the total number of individuals screened, 30151 pregnant women were tested for HIV & syphilis, with 56 testing positive for HIV (a yield of 0.14) and 534 testing positive for syphilis. Comparing the TB yield pre and post-engagement of the CTWs, we observed a 35% increase, while for the HIV screening pre and post-engagement of the CHVs comparison, we noticed a significant increase with only 1,343 screenings conducted pre-engagement and 29,684 screenings conducted post-engagement of the CHVs. Engaging CHWs has shown a massive yield in screening of both diseases, providing multiple services in a one-stop shop manner, giving the clients increased accessibility to healthcare services within their communities, and demonstrating collaboration across different disease entities to achieve a common goal of epidemic control. We recommend sustaining these gains to enhance early disease detection and improve maternal outcomes.
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