Treatment outcomes of adults with new onset pulmonary tuberculosis in Pretoria, South Africa.

Treatment outcomes of adults with new onset pulmonary tuberculosis in Pretoria, South Africa. Trop Doct. 2020 Jan 19;:49475519900736 Authors: Nkoane MA, Adefolalu AO, Ogunbanjo GA Abstract A persistently high burden of tuberculosis (TB) and low cure rates in South Africa call for frequent assessment of the effectiveness of the TB programme. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate treatment outcomes and associated factors among new TB patients taking standard regimen 1 TB treatment during 2010 in Pretoria, using the World Health Organization's six treatment outcomes classification. The 85 participants (of whom 59% were female) had co-infection with HIV in 70%. A total of 52% completed treatment, but only 15% were officially cured; 13% died and only 35% had an end-of-treatment sputum test. The treatment success rate (cured and complete treatment) was 67%. Completion of TB treatment was associated with HIV status (P = 0.02) and TB diagnosis using only sputum smear test (P = 0.02). Our results suggest non-compliance with standard TB guidelines by healthcare workers. We therefore advise future interventions should target both patients and healthcare workers. PMID: 31955654 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Tropical Doctor - Category: Tropical Medicine Authors: Tags: Trop Doct Source Type: research