American Journal of Life Sciences

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Role of Health Extension Worker in Tuberculosis Prevention and Control in Ethiopia: Systematic Review

Received: Dec. 11, 2018    Accepted: Jan. 24, 2019    Published: Feb. 21, 2019
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Abstract

Background: Health Extension Program was designed to serve the rural community of Ethiopia and has brought significant change in improving utilization of family planning, antenatal care, postnatal care, birth preparedness, initiating breast feeding immediately after birth and HIV testing. In relation to Tuberculosis (TB) prevention and control, TB patients believe that they learnt about TB from HEWs and some patients stated that they could not have been diagnosed without the work of HEWs. HEWs focus on Education of the community, Identification of suspects, referral of suspects to health Facilities, Support for adherence to treatment, retrieval of absentees and contact tracing. Objective: The objective of this review was to assess the role of Ethiopian health extension workers in prevention and control of TB. Method: Computerized systematic search was conducted through PubMed, Google Scholar, and Science direct databases. After reviewing for relevance of articles based on title, abstract and eliminating for redundancies five articles were included for this review. Studies presented to the original article, studies that examine contribution of HEWs to TB prevention, studies conducted in Ethiopia; studies written in English were included in the review. Results: Large number of people with TB symptom which is the base for TB prevention and elimination strategy was identified by the HEWs. The health extension workers identified not only new patients but also the retreatment (defaulters) which are the major contributors to (multi drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). From the identified TB suspects by HEWs, majority of them were found to be positive for the disease. Health extension worker remain the health worker who identify TB suspects and refer patient to health facilities. They were also the source of community health educator in relation to TB.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajls.20190701.11
Published in American Journal of Life Sciences ( Volume 7, Issue 1, February 2019 )
Page(s) 1-4
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Health Extension Workers, Tuberculosis, Ethiopia

References
[1] H. B. Ethiopia’s health extension program: Improving health through community involvement. MEDICC Rev. 2011;13:46.
[2] Bounkhel M, Thibault L. Scalarization of Tangential Regularity of Set-Valued Mappings. Set-Valued Anal. 1999; 7 (1): 33–53.
[3] Karim AM, Admassu K, Schellenberg J, Alemu H, Getachew N, Ameha A, et al. Effect of Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program on Maternal and Newborn Health Care Practices in 101 Rural Districts: A Dose-Response Study. PLoS One. 2013; 8 (6).
[4] Datiko DG, Lindtjørn B. Health extension workers improve tuberculosis case detection and treatment success in southern Ethiopia: A community randomized trial. PLoS One. 2009;4 (5).
[5] Yassin MA, Datiko DG, Tulloch O, Markos P, Aschalew M, Shargie EB, et al. Innovative Community-Based Approaches Doubled Tuberculosis Case Notification and Improve Treatment Outcome in Southern Ethiopia. PLoS One. 2013; 8 (5): 1–8.
[6] Kasaeva T, Floyd K, Anderson L, Baddeley A. Global tuberculosis report 2018. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2018. [Internet]. WHO Publication. 2018. 174 p. Available from: http://apps.who.int/iris.
[7] Global tuberculosis report 2017. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2017.
[8] Global tuberculosis report 2016. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2016.
[9] Global tuberculosis report 2015. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2015.
[10] Global tuberculosis report 2014. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2014.
[11] Tiemersma EW, Collins D, Hof S Van Den. Summary report Costs faced by (multidrug resistant) tuberculosis patients during diagnosis and treatment : report from a pilot study in Ethiopia , Indonesia and Kazakhstan. 2014; February(February 2014): 1–7.
[12] Suganthi P, Chadha VK, Ahmed J, Umadevi G, Kumar P, Srivastava R, et al. Health seeking and knowledge about tuberculosis among persons with pulmonary symptoms and tuberculosis cases in Bangalore slums. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2008; 12 (11): 1268–73.
[13] de Cuevas RMA, Lawson L, Al-Sonboli N, Al-Aghbari N, Arbide I, Sherchand JB, et al. Patients direct costs to undergo TB diagnosis. Infect Dis Poverty [Internet]. 2016; 5 (1). Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40249-016-0117-x.
[14] FMOH. Federal ministry of health Ethiopia TB,Leprosy,HIV prevention and control programme. 2008.
[15] Datiko DG, Yassin MA, Theobald SJ, Blok L, Suvanand S, Creswell J, et al. Health extension workers improve tuberculosis case finding and treatment outcome in Ethiopia: a large-scale implementation study. BMJ Glob Heal [Internet]. 2017; 2 (4): e000390. Available from: http://gh.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/bmjgh-2017-000390.
[16] Datiko DG, Lindtjørn B. Health extension workers improve tuberculosis case detection and treatment success in southern Ethiopia: A community randomized trial. PLoS One. 2009; 4 (5).
[17] Getnet F, Hashi A, Mohamud S, Mowlid H, Klinkenberg E. Low contribution of health extension workers in identification of persons with presumptive pulmonary tuberculosis in Ethiopian Somali Region pastoralists. BMC Health Serv Res. 2017; 17 (1): 1–9.
[18] Fekadu L, Hanson C, Osberg M, Makayova J, Mingkwan P, Chin D. Increasing Access to Tuberculosis Services in Ethiopia: Findings from a Patient-Pathway Analysis. J Infect Dis. 2017; 216 (Suppl 7): S696–701.
[19] Yassin MA, Datiko DG, Tulloch O, Markos P, Aschalew M, Shargie EB, et al. Innovative Community-Based Approaches Doubled Tuberculosis Case Notification and Improve Treatment Outcome in Southern Ethiopia. PLoS One. 2013; 8 (5): 1–8.
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  • APA Style

    Tesfaye Dagne Weldemarium, Muluneh Getachew. (2019). Role of Health Extension Worker in Tuberculosis Prevention and Control in Ethiopia: Systematic Review. American Journal of Life Sciences, 7(1), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajls.20190701.11

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    ACS Style

    Tesfaye Dagne Weldemarium; Muluneh Getachew. Role of Health Extension Worker in Tuberculosis Prevention and Control in Ethiopia: Systematic Review. Am. J. Life Sci. 2019, 7(1), 1-4. doi: 10.11648/j.ajls.20190701.11

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    AMA Style

    Tesfaye Dagne Weldemarium, Muluneh Getachew. Role of Health Extension Worker in Tuberculosis Prevention and Control in Ethiopia: Systematic Review. Am J Life Sci. 2019;7(1):1-4. doi: 10.11648/j.ajls.20190701.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajls.20190701.11,
      author = {Tesfaye Dagne Weldemarium and Muluneh Getachew},
      title = {Role of Health Extension Worker in Tuberculosis Prevention and Control in Ethiopia: Systematic Review},
      journal = {American Journal of Life Sciences},
      volume = {7},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-4},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajls.20190701.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajls.20190701.11},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajls.20190701.11},
      abstract = {Background: Health Extension Program was designed to serve the rural community of Ethiopia and has brought significant change in improving utilization of family planning, antenatal care, postnatal care, birth preparedness, initiating breast feeding immediately after birth and HIV testing. In relation to Tuberculosis (TB) prevention and control, TB patients believe that they learnt about TB from HEWs and some patients stated that they could not have been diagnosed without the work of HEWs. HEWs focus on Education of the community, Identification of suspects, referral of suspects to health Facilities, Support for adherence to treatment, retrieval of absentees and contact tracing. Objective: The objective of this review was to assess the role of Ethiopian health extension workers in prevention and control of TB. Method: Computerized systematic search was conducted through PubMed, Google Scholar, and Science direct databases. After reviewing for relevance of articles based on title, abstract and eliminating for redundancies five articles were included for this review. Studies presented to the original article, studies that examine contribution of HEWs to TB prevention, studies conducted in Ethiopia; studies written in English were included in the review. Results: Large number of people with TB symptom which is the base for TB prevention and elimination strategy was identified by the HEWs. The health extension workers identified not only new patients but also the retreatment (defaulters) which are the major contributors to (multi drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). From the identified TB suspects by HEWs, majority of them were found to be positive for the disease. Health extension worker remain the health worker who identify TB suspects and refer patient to health facilities. They were also the source of community health educator in relation to TB.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Role of Health Extension Worker in Tuberculosis Prevention and Control in Ethiopia: Systematic Review
    AU  - Tesfaye Dagne Weldemarium
    AU  - Muluneh Getachew
    Y1  - 2019/02/21
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    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajls.20190701.11
    T2  - American Journal of Life Sciences
    JF  - American Journal of Life Sciences
    JO  - American Journal of Life Sciences
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    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-5737
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajls.20190701.11
    AB  - Background: Health Extension Program was designed to serve the rural community of Ethiopia and has brought significant change in improving utilization of family planning, antenatal care, postnatal care, birth preparedness, initiating breast feeding immediately after birth and HIV testing. In relation to Tuberculosis (TB) prevention and control, TB patients believe that they learnt about TB from HEWs and some patients stated that they could not have been diagnosed without the work of HEWs. HEWs focus on Education of the community, Identification of suspects, referral of suspects to health Facilities, Support for adherence to treatment, retrieval of absentees and contact tracing. Objective: The objective of this review was to assess the role of Ethiopian health extension workers in prevention and control of TB. Method: Computerized systematic search was conducted through PubMed, Google Scholar, and Science direct databases. After reviewing for relevance of articles based on title, abstract and eliminating for redundancies five articles were included for this review. Studies presented to the original article, studies that examine contribution of HEWs to TB prevention, studies conducted in Ethiopia; studies written in English were included in the review. Results: Large number of people with TB symptom which is the base for TB prevention and elimination strategy was identified by the HEWs. The health extension workers identified not only new patients but also the retreatment (defaulters) which are the major contributors to (multi drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). From the identified TB suspects by HEWs, majority of them were found to be positive for the disease. Health extension worker remain the health worker who identify TB suspects and refer patient to health facilities. They were also the source of community health educator in relation to TB.
    VL  - 7
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Health Economics, Management and Policy, College of Public Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia

  • Department of Health Economics, Management and Policy, College of Public Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia

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