Second edition: February 2022

THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH,

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, GENDER, ELDERLY, AND
CHILDREN
NATIONAL AIDS CONTROL PROGRAMME

Recency Module User Guide

Edition 1.1
February 2022
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABBREVIATIONS 3

INTRODUCTION 4

PURPOSE AND SCOPE 4

POINTS OF CONTACT 4
ISSUES/CHALLENGES REPORTING LEVELS 4

SYSTEM CAPABILITIES 5

PURPOSE 5
GENERAL DESCRIPTION 5
SECURITY FEATURES 5
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 6
SUPPORTED BROWSERS 6

USING THE SYSTEM 7

LOGIN 7
DASHBOARD 8
APPLYING FILTERS ON DASHBOARD 12
RECENCY INFORMATION 13
NEW DATA ENTRY 15
NEW RECORD 15
QUALITY CONTROL DATA 17
DELETING A RECORD/ROW 18
DELETING ENTIRE REGISTER 19
REPORTS 20
EXPORT FOR ANALYSIS 28
SYSTEM INFORMATION 29
ABOUT 29
HELP CENTER 30

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 31

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ABBREVIATIONS

MOHCDGEC Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children

NACP National AIDS Control Programme

CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

UCC University of Dar es salaam Computing Centre

CTC Care and Treatment Clinic

SQL Structured Query Language

HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus

PLHIV People Living with HIV

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INTRODUCTION
The United Republic of Tanzania Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly
and Children (MOHCDGEC) through the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) is
conducting surveillance on recent HIV infections.

With increasing HIV treatment coverage in Tanzania, HIV prevalence data is not enough to
understand how the HIV epidemic is evolving. In contrast, HIV incidence provides a true
measure of transmission dynamics–recent infections reveal the current status of HIV
transmission. HIV recency testing among persons newly diagnosed with HIV is a supplemental
HIV monitoring activity with the purpose of informing real-time HIV programming as well as
the estimation of the number of recent HIV infections among newly identified people living with
HIV (PLHIV) to help inform targeted prevention efforts to achieve HIV epidemic control.

In order to collect data in an orderly manner, the University of Dar es salaam Computing Centre
(UCC) developed a recency module within the CTC2 database to store the recency surveillance
data, provide easy reporting, and facilitate further analysis of the data collected. The recency
module is a web application and can be accessed via any web browser and will be installed at
facility level as part of the CTC2 Database. The recency module is developed on ASP.NET
Framework.

Purpose and scope

This document serves as a user guide on how to use the recency module to capture recency
surveillance data, produce reports and export data for further analysis and will be used by all
recency surveillance stakeholders.

Points of contact
System support will be provided by developers and technical support of CTC2 database. For
required support services, below are the contact details to reach the UCC team:

Email address: [email protected]

Telephone number: +255 22 2131213, +255 22 2138282

Issues/Challenges reporting levels

Level 3
Issues on how to use the system and will be handled directly by the UCC support team.
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Level 2
Issues causing the system to be faulty should be directed to UCC support team.

Level 1
Issues that may cause a change/modification in the system need approval from NACP to resolve
them.

SYSTEM CAPABILITIES
Purpose
The recency module application system will allow for data collection, storage and reporting, and
further data analysis in a secure environment.

General description
Dashboard
For a quick observation of data, the recency module has dashboards built in with data visually
displayed as bar charts and tables. For easy reading, color consistency has been maintained for
indicators appearing on multiple charts.

Recency information
Built into the recency surveillance module is a single page resembling the paper-based Recency
Data Collection Tool in which all entered records will be displayed, making it easy to refer to a
single record from those listed. The most recent records will appear at the top.

Export for analysis

The application has the capability to export data in Excel format which can be used to do further
analysis.

Reports
The recency surveillance module includes various standard reports.

Security features
- System can be accessed with valid CTC2 credentials.
- User passwords follows CTC2 database security policies.
- Passwords are hashed (One-way encryption).
- Data is stored in CTC2 database developed using MS SQL Server. MS SQL Server
comes with built-in security from server level to table level. Restrictions can be applied
on who can: login, access data and manipulate data.
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- There is granular security implemented to the level of page and page actions (e.g.: view
registrations, add registrations, export for analysis, report access, etc.).
- The module has implemented audit trails for every update or edit made to the data.
- The module uses CTC2 database backup mechanisms.

System Requirements
- The minimum operating system requirements for the CTC2 Version 10 are the
following:
o Windows Server 2019
o Windows Server 2016
o Windows Server 2012 R2
o Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
o Windows Server 2008 SP2
o Windows 10
o Windows 8.1
o Windows 7 Service Pack 1
- Processor Speed: Minimum 2.0 GHz or faster.
- Client machine installed with any web browser.
- If you have more than one computer, one must be defined as server.
- Well configured Local Area Network.
Supported browsers
Recency surveillance module is supported on all web browsers.
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USING THE SYSTEM

Login
The application system can be accessed via CTC2. Login to CTC2 using your assigned
credentials.

Click on the Recency Surveillance Module button provided in the CTC2 main menu to open the
recency module.
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Dashboard
After you login and access the recency surveillance module, the dashboard screen will open. This
screen gives a visual display of data that has been entered already.

Additionally, the above screen can be opened at any moment by clicking on the Dashboard link
in the top menu bar.

The dashboard page is divided into six parts.

2
1

4
3

Part one shows overall counts and proportions related to recency testing. The first row of this
section shows the number of eligible clients (dark blue), number consented and tested clients
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(light blue) and the proportion of consented and tested among those eligible (light green). The
second row shows the number consented and tested (light blue), number of recent cases (green)
and the proportion of recent cases among those consented and tested (orange).

1. Part two is a cascade chart.

i. The gray bar represents the number clients found HIV positive.
ii. The red bar represents the number of newly diagnosed HIV positive and the
proportion newly diagnosed among all positive cases.
iii. The dark blue bar represents the number of clients found eligible for recency
testing and the proportion eligible among all newly diagnosed.
iv. The light blue bar represents the number consented and tested and the proportion
consented and tested among those eligible.
v. The green bar represents the number of recent cases and the proportion recent
among those consented and tested.
vi. The brown bar represents the number of long-term cases and the proportion long-
term among those consented and tested.
vii. The orange bar represents the number of negative cases and the proportion
negative among those consented and tested.
viii. The purple bar represents the number of invalid results and the proportion invalid
among those consented and tested.

2. Part three is a bar chart showing counts and proportions of recent cases by sex with males
in brown and females in purple.
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3. Part four is a bar chart showing counts and proportions of recent cases by age range and
sex with males in brown and females in purple.

4. Part five is a bar chart showing counts and proportions of recent and long-term cases by
testing point with long-term cases in brown and recent cases in green.

5. Part six is a table of counts and proportions of recent and long-term test results by clients’
residential areas.
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Note: In all the bar charts shown on the dashboard, an icon in the top right corner
allows you to export the chart in the following formats: JPG, PDF, SVG, PNG and CSV.

All the bar charts above can be expanded to get a better view by double clicking on them. For
example, the Recent by Age & Sex chart below is displayed in the default view.

When double clicked, the chart can be viewed in an expanded display as seen below.
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Applying filters on dashboard

The dashboard has a filter feature that enables users to sort outputs by various time categories:
last week, last month, last three months, and all. By default, the dashboard is set to display ALL.
To apply filters, follow the steps below:

1. Click on Reporting period (From beginning to date)

2. Select the period from drop down list then click on Filter button.
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Recency information
To view recency testing information, click on the link that says Recency information found in
the top red menu bar. This will open a table with the following columns: sequence number,
confirmation code, test type, test date, age, sex, eligible, region, council, ward, sample ID,
interpretation, tester name, entry date.

To filter the displayed results, click on Filters on the menu bar.

Select the variable you wish to filter by (for example: tester name Ben) and click Filter.
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Only records for clients tested by Ben are displayed.

To view/edit a specific record, select the record by clicking once to highlight the row and the
color of the record selected will change to blue.

Then click on View Selected Record on the menu bar as shown below. You can also select a
record by double clicking on the row.

The data entry page for the selected record will open as shown below.
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New data entry

New record
1. To enter a new record, click on Recency information link from the top red menu bar.

2. Click on New Data Entry Form link.

3. A new screen will open. Fill in all fields as on the paper tool and click Save in the bottom
right. Fields marked with a red asterisk must be field.
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4. After saving the record, a unique record number (New Confirmation Code) will be
generated and a window will open displaying that code.

In the event that the record entered violated any of the validation rules/logic, the
sequence number (Seq) will be highlighted in red to alert you that an error was made. If
any highlighted fields do not match the data on the paper-based Recency Surveillance
Data Collection Tool, click OK and make any necessary corrections. If all fields match
the Tool, proceed to the next step.
Example: The screen below shows that the client was not eligible for recency testing but
the data entry user recorded consented for recency testing.
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5. Click Ok to close the pop-up window.

6. A new row will open below for the next record entry.

Quality control data

When entering QC data follow the steps 1 – 3 above then proceed as follows;

4. Type in the date and Age “999”. You will notice all the fields not applicable to QC are
auto-filled with “N/A”
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5. Scroll to the “Quality Control” column and click on the information icon then enter the
“QC Lot #” and “Date QC Lot Received”

Information icon

6. Complete the entry by finalizing the kit result interpretation. Then click “Save”

Deleting a record/row
If you wish to delete a single row, click on any cell within that row and then click on Remove
Selected Entry button at the bottom.
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Deleting entire register

If you wish to delete an entire register, click on the Delete button at the bottom

Click Yes on the confirmation message.

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Reports
The recency module can produce four type of reports: User Activities report, Invalid Entry Issues
report, Recency Surveillance Overview report and Asante Quality Control report. To generate a
report, follow the steps below:

1. Click on Reports on the top red menu bar.

2. Choose a report to run from the yellow column on the left.

2.1 The User Activities report shows actions/modifications performed by users in the
system.
To open this report, select User Activities from the left yellow column.
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Fill in the User name and specified dates then click Preview.

The generated report will resemble the one below:

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2.2 The Invalid Entry Issues report presents checks automatically performed by the
system to control the quality of data.

To open this report, select Invalid Entry Issues from the left yellow column.

Fill in the User name and dates then click Preview.

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The generated report will resemble the one below:

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2.3 The Recency Surveillance Overview report is a summary of all client data entered in
the database.
To open this report, select Recency Surveillance Overview from the left yellow column.

Fill in the specified dates then click Preview.

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The generated report will resemble the one below:

2.4 The Asante Quality Control report shows all those samples provided for testing with
the intension to check the quality of testing.
To open this report, select Asante Quality Control from the left yellow column.
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You can filter this report by multiple variables. Fill in the specified dates.

You can further filter your report by entering the Kit Lot number, the Quality Control
sample and/or the Recency Interpretation then click Preview.
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The generated report will resemble the one below:

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Export for analysis

1. Click on the Export for Analysis link on top red menu bar.

2. Select the test dates for the data you wish to export (From Date and To Date) then click
on Export at the bottom of the page.

An Excel file will automatically download.

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System Information
About
For information about the system, hover over the Extra button in the top red bar then click on
About System.

System information will be displayed as shown below.

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Help Center
For information on how to use the system, hover over the Extra button in the top red menu bar
then click on Help Centre.

By default, support details will open under Help Desk. To open the user manual, click on User
Manual on the left yellow column.

The user manual can be viewed within the system by clicking on View Manual or can be
downloaded as a PDF by clicking on Download Manual.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. Is the recency module an online application system?
Answer: No, it has been developed using web application technology, but it is not housed
not online.
2. Is Internet access required to use the recency module?
Answer: No, the system is installed on a computer at the facility and does not require
Internet access.
3. How do I log in to the recency module?
Answer: Users’ accounts are managed in CTC2 and only users with recency module
access privileges can log in.
4. Can I edit a field after I have saved?
Answer: Yes.
a) Click on the field you wish to edit.
b) Make any necessary changes then click save.

Note: However, if you are not on the data entry page, follow the steps below:

a) Click on Recency Information link on top red menu bar

b) Select the record to edit from the list displayed (You may use the filters on the top
bar to search for the record).
c) The row will be highlighted in blue and click on edit or double click on it.
d) Follow the steps a) and b) above.
5. Where are recency surveillance data stored?
Answer: All data are stored in the CTC2 database.
6. Do I need to export data to CTC3?
Answer: An export feature has been incorporated in CTC2. During export, all data are
automatically sent to CTC3.
7. Can I leave a required field blank if the field is left blank in the paper-based Recency
Surveillance Data Collection tool?
Answer: All required fields must be entered. If data are missing for a required field on
the paper-based Recency Surveillance Data Collection Tool, the data entry clerk should
refer to the tester identified on the Tool for clarification on those missing values. If the
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missing field comprises residential information, options for “Not applicable”,

“Unknown”, and “Refused.”