What is it

There are different ways to do community screening:

• Sometimes many people from the whole village are screened but other times it’s just certain groups of people.

• Sometimes we are looking for Active TB and we use X-ray or spit tests.

• Sometimes we are looking for Latent TB and we use the TB skin test.

Why do we do community screening?

	Sometimes people can have Active TB without feeling sick at all. The only way to know is by having people get tested for TB. Community screening is a way for people to get checked for TB before they feel sick.
	Community screening is a way for people who have Active TB to start treatment before they start feeling sick. This way the TB has less time to hurt the person’s body. The TB also has less time to spread to other people.
	Community screening is a way for people who have Latent TB to start treatment before it becomes Active TB, and they become sick.
	Community screening is an important way for everyone to play a part in keeping the whole community free from TB.

Example conversation with someone who is being asked to come in for a community screening X-ray:

What/Why

• Hey! So, we’re going to talk a bit about why I’m calling you today. The nurses would like you to do an X-ray as part of community screening.

• We’ve done community screening here before. This time, community screening is asking many people in the village to come for X-rays, even if they aren’t sick. It doesn’t mean you’ve been around someone with TB, but because there is still TB in town, we are screening many people to be sure we haven’t missed any.

Benefits

• Screening is all about trying to ‘find TB early’. So, what do I mean by that? Finding TB early is important because it means there is a lower chance of the TB bacteria damaging the body, there is usually less pills or shorter time taking pills, and there is a lower chance that TB can spread to other people.

• Community screening is also one of the ways that everyone in the community can work together to make our village TB-free.

Reassure

• Participating in screening is completely your choice, you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.

• Maybe you’re a bit nervous about the screening which I understand but the way I usually think about it is: it’s better to know and then be able to make decisions based on the information rather than not know and be surprised later.