About TB ARC II Programme
Tuberculosis Accelerated Response and Care II (TB ARC II) is a five-year activity targeted at reducing the incidence, and TB related morbidity, and mortality in line with the 90-95-0 targets to End the TB epidemic in Kenya. It is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and is being implemented as a follow-on to the TB ARC Activity which ended in November 2018.
Targeted populations include young men aged between 25 to 34, urban dwellers, HIV uninfected, and women over the age of 65 noted to have a higher prevalence of TB, and the most vulnerable – children, HIV-infected persons, health care workers, refugees, and other marginalized populations.
In 2016, Kenya completed her first post-independence TB prevalence survey
This was a population-based cross-sectional survey, designed to derive national level TB estimates. TB prevalence was estimated at 558 per 100,000 adult population, doubling the pre-survey estimate of 266 per 100,000 (MOH, 2016). The incidence rate was estimated at 348 per 100,000. In absolute numbers, there are 169,000 estimated TB cases annually, meaning that with a prevalence to notification ratio of 3.5:1, four out of every 10 TB cases are missed in Kenya each year.
Age, gender and geographical disparities were apparent from the survey
Age-specific prevalence rates of bacteriologically confirmed TB revealed the highest prevalence among adults aged 25-34 years (716 per 100,000) followed by those aged 45-54 years (607 per 100,000). The prevalence among men (809 per 100,000) doubled the female prevalence (359 per 100,000) highlighting gender disparities. The burden of TB was also higher in urban areas (760 per 100,000) compared to rural areas (453 per 100,000).
Our Response
This activity aims to:
- Improve TB case finding
- Improve access to high quality, patient-centered TB, DR-TB and TB/HIV services
- Prevent TB transmission and disease progression
- Strengthen TB service delivery platforms, and
- Accelerate research and innovation
The TB ARC II Activity is implemented by a consortium led by Centre for Health Solutions – Kenya (CHS) in collaboration with the National Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Lung Disease Program (NTLD-Program), The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (The Union), Population Services Kenya (PS Kenya), the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), STOP TB Partnership-Kenya and Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium (KANCO).
Current TB Situation
Kenya is among 14 countries with the highest triple burden of TB, TB/HIV co-infection and Multi-drug Resistant TB (MDR-TB) globally. Out of 30 high burdened TB countries, Kenya is included in the list of 20 countries that contribute an estimated 85% of the global burden of disease in absolute numbers. This means that incident cases of TB exceed 10,000 while incident cases of TB/HIV coinfection and MDR-TB exceed 1,000 per year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Yet, in the period 2010 to 2016, Kenya recorded the third highest rate of decline in TB incidence among high burden countries, at 6.9%, outpacing the global average rate of 1.4% per year (WHO, 2017).
