Active tuberculosis case findings in Ghanaian health facilities: effectiveness and sensitivity of the symptoms-based screening tool

INTRODUCTION: The National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP), Ghana, introduced Symptoms-Based Screening (SBS) Tool for TB case finding. This study aimed to determine the challenges and limitations associated with the use of the SBS Tool for active tuberculosis case finding in Ghanaian health facility settings. METHODS: This study targeted suspected TB patients attending two health facilities in the Ho Municipality, Ghana. Initially, suspected TB patients were screened with the SBS tool and presumptive patients subsequently tested for M. tuberculosis using microscopy and geneXpert assay. Additionally, health personnel were interviewed to assess the user friendliness, challenges, and limitations associated with the tool. RESULTS: Of 636 presumptive TB patients identified, 1.73% had tuberculosis. Coughing for > 2 weeks (χ²=24.8; p<0.05); chest pain (χ²=28.3; p<0.01) and night sweat (χ²=34.8; p<0.05) associated significantly with M. tuberculosis infection status. The health personnel found the tool to be not user-friendly and it also lacked indicators to identify other vulnerable individuals such as diabetics, cigarette smokers, alcoholics, immunocompromised, and malnourished individuals. Therefore, the SBS tool was found not to be sensitive enough to identify probable cases. CONCLUSION: The SBS tool is useful for detecting active TB cases, however, it must be improved to identify vulnerable individuals such as diabetics, immunosuppressed, and malnourished.