National Standard Operating Procedures for Tuberculosis Laboratory Diagnosis

Tuberculosis still presents a major threat to the health of the Nigerian population. It is one of the top 10 leading causes of hospital admissions and one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in adults. Its recent relationship to HIV has introduced serious difficulties in case finding, treatment and follow-up due to the dramatic increase in the number of cases.

There has been rapid expansion of the network of laboratories performing smear microscopy since the inception of the NTBLCP in 1993. With the support of WHO, CDC/ASM, Global Fund, USAID, ILEP, Agbami Co-venturers (Agbami Partners) and other stakeholders, the Culture/DST, LPA and Xpert MTB/RIF services are also been provided in most TB laboratories in the country.

To standardize the procedures performed in these laboratories for the diagnosis of tuberculosis cases including the resistant strains, there is need to harmonize the SOPs to inform and guide all laboratory personnel on all the steps involved with minimal errors.

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Standard Operating Procedure for Contact Investigation and Tuberculosis Preventive Treatment

Contact investigation consists of identification, evaluation and provision of appropriate Tuberculosis (TB) treatment or TB preventive treatment (TPT). TPT or treatment of Latent TB infection is treatment offered to individuals who are considered to be at risk of developing TB disease, in order to reduce their risk of developing active TB.