Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, disproportionately impacting vulnerable populations.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, disproportionately impacting vulnerable populations. TB remains a substantial public health threat in Ghana, with an estimated 45,000 new cases and 15,700 deaths in 2021. Key populations such as people living with HIV (PLHIV), prisoners, miners, children, rural residents and urban poor face heightened biological and epidemiological susceptibility coupled with barriers accessing timely, quality TB services. Tailored, differentiated care is required to address their needs. Ghana has made significant strides in expanding TB services, but gaps persist in reaching those most marginalized. This report offers valuable insights into differentiated care for key populations in Ghana.

The SCORE TB Challenge for Civil Society (CFCS) project identified six priority key populations – PLHIV, prisoners, smokers, children, rural poor, and miners – and conducted a comprehensive assessment to understand their characteristics, care experiences, and support needs. The findings revealed significant gaps in TB service accessibility, utilization, and quality across these populations, along with common barriers such as stigma, limited awareness, and resource constraints. Despite supportive policies, the implementation of differentiated services was hampered by capacity gaps and systemic challenges within the health system.

Based on the findings, the SCORE TB project developed a set of actionable recommendations to address the identified gaps and improve TB service delivery for key populations. These recommendations include strengthening collaboration among key stakeholders, advocating for increased budgetary allocation and resource mobilization, enhancing monitoring and evaluation systems, decentralizing TB services, incorporating comprehensive needs assessments, and expanding social support and enablers packages, among others.

The dissemination meeting brought together a diverse range of stakeholders, including representatives from the government, Ghana TB Voice Network, Hope For Future Generations Ghana, Ghana Health Service National Tuberculosis Control Programme (Ghana), Stop TB Partnership Stop TB Partnership Ghana, Lawyers Alert Nigeria, civil society organizations, affected individuals, key population representatives, healthcare professionals, researchers, and Lawyers, MPs, Ghana Army, the media and other relevant parties. By engaging stakeholders in meaningful dialogue and collaboration, we aim to catalyze action and drive positive change in the TB response in Ghana.

The vice Chair of Stop TB Partnership, Arinze Austin Obiefuna, attended and gave insights to the roadmap to ending TB. Dr. Adusi Poku the deputy Program Manager of NTP spearheaded this stakeholder engagement.

James Malar from Stop TB Partnership, Geneva also talked about Challenge for Civil Society (CFCS) grants and commended the job done as SCORETB has barked on a data driven project that fills data gaps and promotes targeted and focused interventions towards TB.

We encouraged the adaptation of these recommendations into policy and programming decisions.

Additionally, the meeting served as a platform for Ghana TB Laws and legal remedies to grant TB affected ppl the legal and justice access and promote accountability.

Author: ScoreTB

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