Health Extension Workers Improve Tuberculosis Case Detection and Treatment Success in Southern Ethiopia: A Community Randomized Trial
Health Extension Workers Improve Tuberculosis Case Detection and Treatment Success in Southern Ethiopia: A Community Randomized Trial
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0005443
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发表时间：
2009-05-08
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Lindtjorn, Bernt
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Datiko, Daniel G.;Lindtjorn, Bernt
背景：控制结核病的主要策略之一是发现和治疗活动性结核病患者。不幸的是，许多国家的病例发现率仍然很低。因此，我们需要采取干预措施，以发现和治疗足够数量的结核病患者。我们调查是否涉及卫生推广工作者（HEW：训练有素的社区卫生工作者）在结核病控制改善涂阳病例检测和治疗成功率在埃塞俄比亚南部。方法/主要发现：我们进行了一项社区随机试验，在埃塞俄比亚南部，2006年9月至2008年4月。51个kebeles（总人口296，811）被随机分配到干预组和对照组。我们在干预小组中培训卫生保健工作者如何识别嫌疑人，收集痰液，并提供直接观察治疗。干预小组中的卫生保健工作者建议持续两周或更长时间的排痰性咳嗽患者前往卫生站就诊。230例痰检阳性患者来自干预组，88例来自对照组。干预组的平均病例检出率高于对照组（122.2%vs69.4%，P
Background: One of the main strategies to control tuberculosis ( TB) is to find and treat people with active disease. Unfortunately, the case detection rates remain low in many countries. Thus, we need interventions to find and treat sufficient number of patients to control TB. We investigated whether involving health extension workers (HEWs: trained community health workers) in TB control improved smear-positive case detection and treatment success rates in southern Ethiopia.Methodology/Principal Finding: We carried out a community-randomized trial in southern Ethiopia from September 2006 to April 2008. Fifty-one kebeles (with a total population of 296, 811) were randomly allocated to intervention and control groups. We trained HEWs in the intervention kebeles on how to identify suspects, collect sputum, and provide directly observed treatment. The HEWs in the intervention kebeles advised people with productive cough of 2 weeks or more duration to attend the health posts. Two hundred and thirty smear-positive patients were identified from the intervention and 88 patients from the control kebeles. The mean case detection rate was higher in the intervention than in the control kebeles (122.2% vs 69.4%, p