May 21 – 22, 2019: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff and Ministry of Health TB Program representatives from Atlanta, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya, visited selected CHS supported facilities in Machakos County to learn and share experiences on the interventions and innovations used to scale up Isoniazid Preventive Therapy (IPT).
IPT is the use of Isoniazid (INH) to treat latent (silent) TB infection to prevent its progression to active TB. Kenya’s National Tuberculosis Leprosy and Lung Disease Program (NTLD-Program) recommends that IPT should be given to vulnerable populations like; people living with HIV (PLWHIV), children under the age of five years who have been exposed to TB, prisoners and health care workers. IPT is given for six months and significantly reduces the risk of acquiring active TB.
Kenya has had great success in the uptake of IPT, recording an almost 50-fold increase from 2014 to 2016 and an estimated 85% IPT coverage among over 1 million PLHIV by end of 2018. “We are honoured to host the countries represented here to exchange ideas, share experiences and expertise and learn from each other about IPT and other HIV/TB prevention and care services’” said Dr Abraham Katana, CDC Branch Chief – HIV Service Delivery.
In three groups, the visiting team visited six CHS supported health facilities in Machakos (Mlolongo, Athi River, Machakos Level 5, Kathiani, Katangi and Matuu) which were selected as model learning facilities for this exercise. Some strategies used for scale-up include; sensitisation of health care workers and the community on TB infection control, importance of IPT, IPT drug adherence and pharmacovigilance, ensuring clients put on IPT accessed Pyridoxine to curb the side effects and subsequently reporting any side effect cases appropriately, streamlining reporting and ordering of IPT commodities for isoniazid stock controls in the country.
With support from the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through CDC, CHS supports the County Health Departments in Lower Eastern, Siaya and Central region to implement evidence-based interventions and scale-up the use of new technologies towards the provision of high-quality HIV/TB prevention, treatment and care services.
