Peru makes a mark with TB Screening

With a population of over 30 million, Peru has about 44,000 people who have developed TB. Among them, a staggering 2900 are missing children. Furthermore, about 18,000 are said to be missing.

From February to December 2019, Socios en Salud, with the support of the Stop TB partnership’s TB REACH initiative, deployed mobile vans in over 200 locations. Each van daily provided services for 8 hours. The CAD4TB software read everyone above the age of three. Any case with a CAD4TB score higher than 50 received a molecular diagnostic test (Xpert). The instances found positive by the Xpert test received treatment at the local health facilities.

Making a difference

A study found that the use of CAD4TB resulted in the rapid identification of people needing further testing. It was found that for every 151 people screened using X-ray and CAD4TB, a person with TB was identified.