Tuberculosis treatment outcomes in State Hospital, Osogbo, southwestern Nigeria: a four year review.
BACKGROUND
A retrospective review of all cases of tuberculosis (TB) enrolled in the directly observed treatment-short course chemotherapy (DOT-SCC) between June 2000 and June 2004 at a General Hospital in Southwestern Nigeria was undertaken. The aim is to determine treatment outcomes and ascertain the effectiveness of the programme for TB control.


METHODS
Case registers of all TB patients enrolled were reviewed and data obtained analyzed by statistical methods.


RESULTS
A total of 879 TB patients (467 males, 412 females; M: F ratio 1.13:1) aged 1 to 80 years (mean age 33.0 +/- 14.0 years) were enrolled. The disease was pulmonary in 98.4% and extrapulmonary in 1.6%. Seven hundred and thirty four (83.6%) patients complied with the DOTS-SCC regimen, 127 (14.4%) defaulted while 18 (2%) transferred out. The overall treatment success rate was 76.3% while 3.8% had treatment failures. Outcome was not significantly affected by types of TB lesion (P = 0.1103), patient category (P = 0.4968), age (P = 0.7198), gender (P = 0.1726) or smear positivity (P = 0.5497).


CONCLUSIONS
Although the currently advocated DOT-SCC regimen achieved a high success rate in this locality, it fell below the 85% recommended target. There is need to step up health education campaign on compliance with therapy and aggressively follow up defaulters to forestall the emergence of multidrug resistant M. tuberculosis.
Egbewale
B E
BE
Department of Community Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, PMB 4400, Osogbo, Nigeria.
Taiwo
S S
SS
Odu
O O
OO
Olowu
O A
OA
Sobaloju
S O
SO
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D023801:Directly Observed Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control
D000995:Antitubercular Agents