Assessment of the Contributions of Private Provider Engagement in Tuberculosis Case Finding and Notification in South West Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: Tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of mortalities attributable to an infectious disease. In a private sector-driven health system such as Nigeria, the private health providers are very important stakeholders in tuberculosis diagnosis and management. Unfortunately, there are few data on the level of contribution of these private health providers to the case finding and notification of tuberculosis in Nigeria. Consequently, this study assessed the contribution of the private providers to the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis under the Global Fund Private Public Mix New Funding Model (2nd phase) grant (GF PPM NFM2) in the four implementing states of south west Nigeria. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective, cross-sectional analysis of the NFM2 programme implementation data collected between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020. Data was extracted from the routine registers such as the presumptive TB registers; treatment register of the private health facilities engaged for PPM activities between 2019 and 2020. The data was entered and analyzed using Microsoft excel package. The variables were summarized using appropriate charts and table. Results: Concerning the percentage contribution of the Global Fund Private Public Mix (GF PPM) grant to the total state TB case notification, majority of the implementing states show some progressive rise in the contribution of GF PPM to State TB case notification as the grant implementation progressed. Furthermore, at the initial period of the grant implementation, the health facilities seemed to have generated majority of the cases. However, as the grant implementation progressed, the PPMVs were responsible for the diagnosis of majority of the cases. Conclusion: As the grant progressed, there was a progressive increase in the number of presumptive TB cases as well as in the number of notified cases of tuberculosis attributable to private provider engagement.