Assessment of Community Participation in Prevention and Control Of Tuberculosis in Boloso Sore Woreda Wolayta Zone SNNPR Ethiopia

Abstract

Back ground: In developing countries, tuberculosis (TB) continues to be the major cause of morbidity and mortality. To reduce the loss of lives and economical burden that TB poses up on citizens, early case detection and successful treatment of infected cases are very essential mainly with active community participation in prevention and care of TB. In resource scarce countries like Ethiopia community participation could support over all national TB program efforts by increasing case detection, treatment newlinecompletion and cure rates. Even from an economic viewpoint, community participation is hoped to be as highly cost- effective, with major savings in hospitalization costs and with remarkable benefits to patients newlineand communit ies affected by Tuberculosis. Communit y participat ion wi1l supplement the role of HEWs in achieving significant change in prevention and care of TB. This study was aimed to explore community newlineparticipation and potential barriers to community participation in prevention and care of TB in Wolayta Zone of SNNPR, Ethiopia. Method: Qualitative phenomenological design was used to assess the role of community participation in TB prevention and care in Boloso Sore woreda Wolayta Zone, South Nation Nationality Peoples Region (SNNPR), Ethiopia. Data collection was carried out by conducting in-depth interview and three Focus group discussions. We used the seven steps set in Colaizzi s descriptive phenomenological method, which is used in health science research, for the data analysis Result: Community participation in prevention and care of TB in study area was high. Preventive newlineparticipation and supportive participations were identified and these participations have their own goals in TB prevention and care. Preventive participation has focused on early case finding strategies like referring the suspect cases for TB diagnosis and contact tracing.