The Contribution of Private Health Facilities to the Urban Tuberculosis Program of Afghanistan

SETTING:Although the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) is generally higher in urban areas than in rural areas, coordination between the private and public sectors for TB control is weak.OBJECTIVE:To share experience from an urban DOTS program in five cities of Afghanistan.DESIGN:An urban DOTS project was designed in 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan, and later expanded to Kandahar, Jalalabad, Herat, Mazari-i-Sharif, and Paul-i-Khomri cities.RESULTS:In total, 57 public health facilities and 49 private facilities provided DOTS services in the five cities from 2015 to 2018. A total of 28,542 (10.6%) adults (aged ≥15) screened were diagnosed with TB (all forms). The private sector contributed 5,618 (19.7%) of those. Positivity rates among presumptive TB cases in public facilities were 18.9%, 12.5%, 14.4%, and 4.8% in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively. In private facilities, positivity rates were 25.8%, 39.5%, and 27.4% in 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively.CONCLUSION:The private sector's contribution to case detection was very high and the TB positivity rate among people screened in the private sector was high, which could be due to more selective screening rather than all health facility visitors done by public health facilities.