Mozambique has reached advanced stages in the planning for the implementation Operational Research (OR) studies by completing the proposal development and securing approval from the Union Ethics to undertake two OR studies; Timing of antiretroviral therapy in relation to anti-tubercular treatment and tuberculosis treatment outcomes in patients with HIV-TB co-infection in Chokwe district and Notification of diagnosed TB cases from Xai-Xai Provincial Hospital to referral health facilities for DOT: are there leaks?
Currently, Mozambique is only awaiting local Ethics clearance to undertake the two studies. Resources are available from in country to implement the studies once ethics clearance has been obtained. In addition to the two OR studies, Mozambique is also participating in the assessment of training needs for TB management under the Southern Africa Tuberculosis and Health Systems (SATBHSS) project.
The protocol for the training needs assessment is undergoing in-country ethics review and the implementation timelines for data collection and validation will be made once the ethics clearance is granted. In the meantime, the National TB Program (NTP) is working on preparatory procedures and compiling the email lists which will be used to send the survey link to speed up the process.
The training needs assessment for TB management are important to ascertain the specific skills that are required to address some of the major emerging issues that are possibly retarding the progress towards the control of the TB burden.
Mozambique is also planning for the pilot of the client satisfaction survey and the narrative on how the tool will be introduced has been developed. The pilot will initially be introduced in 27 districts where the project is being implemented and the main (secondary) health facility in each district will be purposively sampled. The client satisfaction survey tool will be expanded after the pilot to other facilities in the same districts. The pilot is planned for implementation by end of quarter 4 of 2017.
A technical team from the East Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) is providing technical support to Mozambique in developing the client satisfaction survey implementation plan, tools for data collection of trainings needs assessments for TB management, country support towards undertaking the health impact/cost benefit studies and reviewing implementation of the baseline study.
Similar technical support to the other three project countries namely; Lesotho, Malawi and Mozambique is also being provided to ensure that all the project countries move at the same pace and reach the targets in the work plans.
