Status of bacillary tuberculosis cases identified in a community survey under different control programmes.
We report the status of bacillary tuberculosis (TB) cases identified in community surveys undertaken at 2.5-year intervals. We observed three cohort periods to represent the different TB control programmes, namely 12-18 months of treatment (pre-short-course chemotherapy [pre-SCC]), 6-8 months SCC and DOTS in the area. There was a significant reduction in deaths from 23% to 17%, and an increase in the proportion of cases negative by smear and/or culture for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, from 54% to 58% in the pre-SCC and SCC cohorts to 80% in the DOTS cohort. These findings suggest that the DOTS strategy could have a significant influence on TB epidemiology.
Santha
T
T
Tuberculosis Research Centre, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Subramani
R
R
Gopi
P G
PG
Chandrasekaran
V
V
Narayanan
P R
PR
D000328:Adult; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control*