Assessing the Real-Time Impact of COVID-19 on TB and HIV Services: The Experience and Response from Selected Health Facilities in Nairobi, Kenya

Mbithi, Irene; Thekkur, Pruthu; Chakaya, Jeremiah Muhwa; Onyango, Elizabeth; Owiti, Philip; Njeri, Ngugi Catherine; Kumar, Ajay M.V.; Satyanarayana, Srinath; Shewade, Hemant D.; Khogali, Mohammed; Zachariah, Rony; Rusen, I. D.; Berger, Selma Dar; Harries, Anthony D.

There was concern that the COVID-19 pandemic would adversely affect TB and HIV programme services in Kenya. We set up real-time monthly surveillance of TB and HIV activities in 18 health facilities in Nairobi so that interventions could be implemented to counteract anticipated declining trends. Aggregate data were collected and reported monthly to programme heads during the COVID-19 period (March 2020–February 2021) using EpiCollect5 and compared with monthly data collected during the pre-COVID period (March 2019–February 2020). During the COVID-19 period, there was an overall decrease in people with presumptive pulmonary TB (31.2%), diagnosed and registered with TB (28.0%) and in those tested for HIV (50.5%). Interventions to improve TB case detection and HIV testing were implemented from August 2020 and were associated with improvements in all parameters during the second six months of the COVID-19 period. During the COVID-19 period, there were small increases in TB treatment success (65.0% to 67.0%) and referral of HIV-positive persons to antiretroviral therapy (91.2% to 92.9%): this was more apparent in the second six months after interventions were implemented. Programmatic interventions were associated with improved case detection and treatment outcomes during the COVID-19 period, suggesting that monthly real-time surveillance is useful during unprecedented events.