A Delft Mobile Screening Unit is on its way to a new project in Papua New Guinea (PNG), which involves WHO, World Vision and HHISP.
Systematic screening for TB is urgently needed in Daru island, PNG to ensure that all people affected by TB and DR-TB are appropriately identified at the earliest stage and treated promptly. Given the high transmission rates and prevalence of TB including DR-TB, a population based screening approach is warranted, with the ultimate aim of reducing the risk of poor treatment outcomes, health sequelae and the adverse social and economic consequences of TB, as well as helping to reduce transmission.
The Delft Mobile Screening Unit including our Easy Portable digital X-ray will be used for systematic screening for active TB. The objective of the project is to screen all population of Daru island to detect active TB and drug resistant TB cases early and to treat them. The project has adopted an algorithm in which the combination of digital chest x-ray and CAD4TB (20.000 images) are set for screening purposes and Xpert will be used as the diagnostic tool. Those people with an abnormal x-ray reading and high CAD4TB score, will be required to provide a sputum sample.
CAD4TB overcomes a major challenge to CXR, which is image interpretation in resource constrained settings. Using CAD4TB software, an abnormality score between 0-100 will indicate the likeliness of TB, with higher scores indicating greater likelihood of PTB.
The mobile screening unit will be stationed for approximately two months at each site: Laro, then Karkara, Tamate and Darowaro. Field staff will be going to the community every day to organize community meetings to create awareness as also to remind and motivate people to participate in the screening programme.
