Abstract

Introduction: Tuberculosis continues to be a global health problem. Nigeria ranks 6 th globally and first in Africa with the burden of the disease. The number of unreported cases can be traced to the vulnerable communities that have no access to TB screening, diagnosis and treatment services. In order to close this gap the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with Lady Helen Child Health Foundation embarked on a TB Screening programme to Four Children Residential Care Homes in Abuja, Nigeria selected through random sampling, were visited to create awareness about the disease in the vulnerable communities, screen children living in these communities, carry out contact tracing and provide them with TB preventive support, treat and report diagnosed cases. 2 Materials and Methods: The details of each child were collected, they were screened to see if they had symptoms of TB or exposed to any risk factors of TB. Sputum and stool samples were further collected and children at risk of TB were tested using chest X-ray machine to check for lung infection. Result and Conclusion: About 103 Vulnerable children where reached. 163 people in the vulnerable communities were reached with TB awareness campaign including the adult care givers. This research shows that vulnerable children in this cohort did not have any infected child. This highlights the need to screen children in vulnerable situations in order to diagnose and treat early to reduce incidence and prevalence of the disease. This also highlights the need for more accurate and updated TB prevalence data.