TB CARE I - Kenya Year 2 Quarterly Report

The project's technical areas include Universal and Early Access, Laboratories, Infection Control, PMDT, TB/HIV, Health Systems Strengthening, M&E, OR and Surveillance, and Drug supply and management. As of July-September 2012, the project has achieved significant milestones, with a completion rate of 75% for the overall work plan. One of the notable achievements of the project is the implementation of an innovative Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solution to improve Programme Management at the DLTLD. This ICT solution is based on a two-pronged approach that enables managers to access data for informed decisions at all levels, including real-time data from facility to central unit and provision of feedback. The system also utilizes Mpesa to make payments for supervision and MDR TB patient support. This innovative Programme Management system is the first of its kind to be implemented in Africa. The project has also continued to support EQA activities in all regions countrywide, with support from APA 2. The EQA coverage has improved from 78% in October-December 2011 to 86% in April-June 2012. The quality of EQA services has also shown significant improvement, with the proportion of major errors dropping from 5% to 2.5% in the most recent EQA data. In addition, the project has supported the printing of data capture tools to collect data at the facility level, which will be used to implement the electronic surveillance system. The materials printed include patient record cards, sputum request forms, facility supervision tools, facility treatment registers, AFB registers, and laboratory workload summaries. However, the project has faced some technical and administrative challenges, including the implementation of Gene Xpert in the country, which is not well coordinated. The national data on the number of tests conducted using the 22 Gene Xpert machines is not available, and data is only available for the 3 Gene Xpert machines supported by TB CARE I. The project has also faced administrative challenges due to unforeseen circumstances, including the non-extension of TB CARE I staff contracts, which coincided with the preparation of the quarterly finance report. Kenya has received two Single Stream of Funding (SSF) grants from the Global Fund for Tuberculosis, with grant numbers KEN-S11-G11-T and KEN-S11-G12-T. The duration for both grants is from 01 January 2011 to 30 June 2013, and phase I is in progress. The Principle Recipient for grant number KEN-S11-G11-T is African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), while the Principle Recipient for grant number KEN-S11-G12-T is Ministry of Finance of Kenya. The project has also made significant progress in implementing the Patient Charter, with 2 MDR TB support groups formed and a total of 2,484 community outreach sessions conducted, reaching 68,975 people with TB messages. The project has also finalized the Gender and Poverty Policy Guidelines, which will be used to increase TB case finding in the target districts. However, the activity of increased TB case finding in the target districts is not yet completed, and data is not yet available. The project has also made progress in implementing the PPM strategy, with 7 out of the 14 PPM tools targeted in APA 2 being implemented. The status of PPM implementation is 3 based on the scoring system, indicating that the country has started implementation of the PPM strategy. The next step is to continue to implement PPM activities aimed at increased case finding.