Assessment of National Tuberculosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus collaborative Program Implementation status in Health Care Settings of Ethiopia

Background: Ethiopia has adopted the World Health Organization recommendation for TB and HIVcollaborative activities since 2004. These collaborative activities have been scaled up in a phased manner and coveredlarge number of health facilities across the nation. However, there is scarcity of information on implementation of these collaborative activities in Ethiopia. Objective: To assess the status of implementation of TB and HIVcollaborative activities in health facility settings of Ethiopia. Methods:Quantitative supplemented by qualitative cross sectional study was undertaken from May 10 to July 10, 2014 in 132 selected health facilities. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 20.  Result: About 81% of the respondents in the selected health facilities reported the screening of People Living with HIV in care for TB at every follow up visit, whereas, only 28.7% of those health facilities reported the screening of PLWHIV for TB at enrolment to HIV chronic care. About half of the public health facilities assessed were not implementing Isoniazid Preventive Therapy and only 18.2% of eligible clients were getting this Preventive Therapy. Among the co-infected patients, 32%were not linked to chronic care services and 45.3% were not getting ART during TB treatment. On the other hand, about two thirds of the co-infected patients are getting the Cotrimoxazole Prophylaxis Therapy. Conclusion: Most of anti-TB and HIV collaborative activities were not implemented as expected in the health facilities. Thus it needs integration from the ministry to the health facilities level in order to improve the collaborative activities.