Identifying the resources for ACF campaign

1. Financial Resources

• Financial resources for ACF may be procured from the Centre/State or through local Private Provider Support Agencies (PPSA). When the funds for ACF are procured from the centre, it should be included under a separate budget head (DSTB Pool) under PIP. 
• Each team would be eligible for an incentive of INR 500 for every new case of TB diagnosed and put on treatment under this activity OR as per approvals in the Programme Implementation Plan (PIP) in the National Programme Coordination Committee (NPCC) of the respective state or as approved by the state National Health Mission (NHM). 
• Each state should ensure that local travel arrangements from the general health system are made available for the field visits by the team, supervisory visits, etc.
• Allowances to ensure Travel Allowance (TA)/ Dearness Allowance (DA) and refreshments as per entitlement are to be made from the respective source of salary for the field teams and supervisory teams.

2. Consumables

Logistics for an ACF campaign include:

a. IEC materials: Appropriate IEC materials are to be designed and printed in the local language. A prototype of the same will be shared with states from the CTD. IEC material printing/ distribution should be completed by two weeks before the start of field activities.

b. Additional logistics for testing:

• Additional slides, laboratory reagents, sample transport boxes, X-ray films, CBNAAT cartridges,  falcon tubes (minimum 1000 per 1 lakh population) should be procured and supplied to health staff for collecting sputum samples from the eligible symptomatic at least two weeks before the start of field activities. Boxes for sputum sample transport should be provided to the health staff for carrying samples to DMCs.
• Additional sputum examination request forms needed – 500 per 1 lakh population

c. Recording and reporting forms: All recording and reporting formats requirement assessment is to be done by DTOs three weeks before the start of field activities

3. Human resource

Human resource for ACF is required for the following:

a. Field activities: House-to-house visits, symptom screening, sputum collection and transport to the Designated Microscopy Centre (DMC).

• One field visit team will comprise two members - one health worker from National TB Elimination Programme (Senior Treatment Supervisor (STS)/ Senior TB Lab Supervisor (STLS)/ TB Health Volunteer (TB-HV)) or a partner organisation (NGO outreach worker) or general health services (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM)/ Multipurpose Worker (MPW)/ Multipurpose Healthcare Supporters (MPHS) and one Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) or community volunteer. The states should decide on the team composition based on available resources and the population to be covered (as obtained from vulnerability mapping).
• House-to-house visits by health workers should involve community leaders, panchayat members particularly the women members, religious leaders and other local influencers like medical practitioners, local moneylenders, grocery shop owners, popular teachers, prominent youth, etc.
• Local community members/ influencers must accompany search teams during house-to-house visits in such areas, especially during revisit to houses.

b. Testing additional sputum samples for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB): Laboratory technicians of the linked DMC and Cartridge-based Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (CBNAAT) labs should be well-informed about the increase in workload and recording of information during ACF activities. 

c. Supervision and Monitoring of ACF activities: Supervision and monitoring of the campaign are done at various levels under the leadership of designated officers. It is  required during the preparatory phase as well as the implementation phase of the campaign.The list of observers along with the districts/ blocks/ urban areas allotted must be shared with Central TB Division (CTD).

• Village level - Medical Officer of Primary Health Centre (PHC)/ Community Health Centre (CHC)/ Urban Health Centre (UHC)
• Block level - Block Medical Officer (BMO)/ Block Health Officer (BHO)
• District level - District TB Officer (DTO)
• State level - State TB Officer (STO)
• Regional level – Regional Directors of the Regional Office of Health and Family Welfare (ROH&FW) will be in charge of supervising activities in their respective states.
• National level - One national level officer for each state will be nominated by CTD to supervise and monitor activities including field visits to the states prior to and during the campaign.

References

• Active TB Case Finding Guidance Document, Central TB Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 2017.

Assessment