“An Electronic Surveillance System For Intensified TB Case Detection In an Adolescent Cohort Study, In Preparation For Future Tuberculosis Vaccine Trials in Western Kenya”

INTRODUCTION: The age specific incidence of Tuberculosis (TB) in developing countries gradually rises in adolescence, making adolescents a good target group for introduction of new TB vaccines. Phase III TB vaccine trials require solid measurable endpoints. We therefore sought to do electronic surveillance in addition to scheduled active follow ups to  maximize TB case finding

METHODS: The study area is under a continous Health and Demographic Surveillance System. After enrolment, passively detected TB cases listed in TB registers were searched and matched with Health and Demographic Surveillance System registers to see if they resided in the same compounds as study participants.TB cases aged 12 to 18 years were also searched in the study database to verify whether they were study participants, TB laboratory and chest x ray records to identify potential TB suspects

 RESULTS: During follow up 8 TB cases were identified, the person time accumulated by all subjects 5004 as 6002.4 person years. The corresponding incidence density is 2.0 per 1000 person years with a corresponding 95% CI (1.14, 3.52) and in addition 5 TB cases were identified through the surveillance system the total person years accumulated by surveillance cases is 5.36 years with a corresponding incidence density of 0.8 95% CI(0.3,2.0) per 1000 person years

 CONCLUSIONS: Identification of  Tuberculosis cases through electronic surveillance indicates this is a useful tool that should be further explored . The additional cases yielded by electronic surveillance might help in shortening follow up time if TB cases are found more quickly