Number of People with Presumptive TB who Received a Chest X-ray (CXR)

TB screening is essential for public health and its final step is enabling the detection of people with active TB. The screening procedure used influences the percentage of evaluated people who are diagnosed with TB. A screening procedure that identifies only people at high risk for TB (e.g. cough lasting more than 2 weeks) may result in a high diagnostic rate, but it also misses many people with TB that do not have such strong signs of TB risk. A screening procedure that identifies more people for testing (e.g., any TB symptom and/or abnormal CXR) may result in a lower diagnostic rate, but it may also be successful in diagnosing more people with TB.

This indicator is the next in sequence after PS-2, depending on the national algorithm for TB screening. It provides the next layer of granular data and helps to supplement the Core and Core Plus as well as monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) national indicators for measuring the ability of National TB Programs (NTPs) to systematically identify and screen for active TB and TB infection (TBI). Reporting of these indicators enables conducting detailed analysis such as constructing cascade analysis for better understanding of the programmatic performance and to track progress for improving TB preventive treatment.