FeedbackContact investigation to identify children, adolescents and other household members with TB disease and to identify those who will benefit from TPT should be a standard component of all national TB programmes. Contact investigation is good public health practice and essential to address and manage several infectious diseases such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Health ministries should invest in strengthening health system capacity to undertake contact investigation. If mechanisms to undertake contact investigation are already in place to identify young children and people living with HIV with TB disease and TB infection, national programmes can strengthen the same mechanisms to ensure contacts aged 5 years and over are also covered. If such mechanisms are lacking, the health ministry should dedicate the necessary human and financial resources to establish effective mechanisms for contact investigation (15).
Box 2.2 provides information on a budgeting tool for contact investigation that aids health ministries and other organizations considering the establishment or expansion of contact investigation activities.
Figure 2.2 lists the items to consider for determining appropriate unit costs for budgeting and planning to strengthen contact investigations (15).
