Abstract:

Introduction: Evaluation of a surveillance system is the systematic investigation of the merits and public health significance of a system. The objectives were to describe the process of operation of the TB surveillance system in Nasarawa state, assess its key attributes, identify gaps, and make appropriate recommendations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the system.

Methods: We used US-CDC updated Guidelines for evaluating public health surveillance systems. We identified 40 stakeholders using a purposive sampling method and conducted a key informant interview to collect relevance information on the surveillance systems attributes such as usefulness, simplicity, flexibility, data quality, predictive value, sensitivity, representativeness, acceptability and stability. We also reviewed relevant tuberculosis surveillance data on Tuberculosis cases finding from 2012 to 2014.

Result: A total of 8067 cases of presumptive tuberculosis were reported from 2012 to 2014 with 53% (4286) positive for all forms of tuberculosis. Age groups 15–54 constitute about 81% of all forms of TB cases in the state. The standard case definition was well-utilized. Stakeholders with the wiliness to continue with the system accounted for 97.5%, 85% of the stakeholders interviewed were able to adapt to changes, 80% of the reported data were completely and correctly filled. Sensitivity was 17.60% while the Predictive Value Positive was 20.3% and timeliness was 72%.

Conclusion: The Nasarawa State TB Surveillance System is still meeting its objective. TB Surveillance System is simple, flexible, acceptable to stakeholders, generates quality data however it has low sensitivity, low positive predictive value and less representative of the general population.

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