High tuberculosis notification and treatment success rates through community participation in central Sulawesi, Republic of Indonesia.
METHODS
Central Sulawesi Province, Republic of Indonesia.


OBJECTIVE
To increase tuberculosis case notification and maintain high treatment success rates through community participation in a tuberculosis field programme.


METHODS
Comparison of tuberculosis case notification and treatment results in a community based tuberculosis programme (CBTP), before and after introduction of the programme and between areas where the programme was and was not introduced.


RESULTS
During 1998, the CBTP was introduced in two of the four rural districts of the Central Sulawesi province, covering 224 (29%) of the 772 villages and 362,700 (33%) of the 1,109,100 population in these districts. In the CBTP villages the notification rate of new smear-positive patients per 100,000 population increased from SI in 1996 and 48 in 1997 to 166 in 1998. In the 548 non-CBTP villages the rates were 62, 60 and 70, respectively. The sputum conversion rate at the end of the first 2 months of the treatment was over 85% in both the CBTP and the non-CBTP villages. In the CBTP villages the treatment success rate (cure and treatment completion) was 90.4%, 89.5% and 93.7% in 1996, 1997, and 1998. For the non-CBTP villages these rates were respectively 85.4%, 86.8% and 85.9%. In 1998 the sputum conversion and treatment success rates were significantly higher in the CBTP villages than in the non-CBTP villages.


CONCLUSIONS
Through community participation, the notification of new smear-smear positive patients increased substantially, while sputum conversion and treatment success rates remained high.
Becx-Bleumink
M
M
KNCV, The Hague, The Netherlands. becxm@kncvtbc.nl
Wibowo
H
H
Apriani
W
W
Vrakking
H
H
D003256:Community Participation / Q000639:trends; D018563:Disease Notification; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007214:Indonesia / Q000453:epidemiology; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000639:trends; D012423:Rural Health / Q000639:trends; D013183:Sputum / Q000382:microbiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000628:therapy*