It is estimated that over 70% of TB cases are missed annually in Nigeria due to wrong diagnosis, poor notification, inadequate access to health and inefficient linkages between healthcare centers. This gap is particularly higher in children as 87% of the estimated TB cases in this age group were missed in 2016. Within healthcare facilities, patients presenting with cough of 2 weeks or more duration are usually not proactively screened for TB hence, a wrong diagnosis is sometimes made. The existing NTP structure provides a system to document and report patients from the point of identification as a presumptive till when treatment is completed however, there is no known structured method of capturing screening done the OPD. For this reason, patients are not found actively and separated safely (FAST strategy) for diagnosis and treatment. In Q2 Y3, the BMF project being implemented by PAF and KNCV, identified this gap and designed a paper based tool to implement active screening of patients at the OPD. This activity was successful in increasing the number of presumptive patients identified across the 60 supported facilities but not without its challenges. Documentation of screened patients was thought to be cumbersome therefore data was usually not kept for more than 3 months; papers were worn out or dirty which sometimes resulted in loss of data and lastly, there were disparities between the number of presumptives written in the screening tool and presumptive registers. In a bid to solve these issues, the Mobile App for TB Screening (MATS) was developed which is an Android based application developed by the project to increase the efficiency and referral process of active in-facility screening for TB. It provides real-time information to DOT providers, project staff and implementing partners through a backend web application when presumptives are identified at the OPD.
