Descriptive Data Analysis of Tuberculosis Surveillance Data, Sene East District, Ghana, 2020

Abstract

Introduction: Globally, Tuberculosis (TB) remains a public health problem. In 2018, 10 million cases were diagnosed with 2.5 million in Africa and 44,000 in Ghana. Ghana's TB surveillance generates data routinely to be analyzed to detect changes in time, suspect outbreaks, rapidly respond to an event and monitor the impact of interventions. We analyzed TB surveillance data from Sene East District, Bono East Region of Ghana to estimate the TB case notification rate and describe the trends of confirmed TB cases and treatment outcomes. Methods: We did a descriptive analysis of secondary data of all TB cases reported in the Sene East district from 2015 to 2019. The data sources were district laboratory and treatment registers, and information from DHIMS2. A fit-for-purpose data extraction sheet was used to collect data from the data sources. We analyzed data to obtain frequencies and relative frequencies. Data was presented in graphs and tables using Microsoft Excel 2016. Results: A total of 43 cases were detected from 2015 to 2019. Of these, 32(74.4%) were male and six (14%) were HIV positive. Mean age was 48.5(±17.8) years. Successful treatment outcomes reduced from 100% in 2015 to 45.5% in 2018. Two of the six TB-HIV cases had successful treatment outcomes. Conclusion: The district had a consistently low case notification rate and a declining successful treatment outcome of TB cases and TB co-infection cases from 2015 to 2019. We sensitized the TB coordinator on the need to provide regular feedback to health facility staff to motivate them to do more.