title: Status of smear-positive TB patients at 2-3 years after initiation of treatment under a DOTS programme.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the status of cases 2-3 years after the initiation of treatment under DOTS.
  
  
  METHODS
  After DOTS implementation in Tiruvallur district, south India, we followed up a cohort of smear-positive TB patients registered during 2002-03 after initiation of treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall mortality rate was 15.0% and among the remaining 18.6% had active disease. In multivariate analysis, a higher mortality rate was independently associated with age, sex, occupation, treatment outcome and initial body weight of patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The mortality and morbidity rates are still high during follow-up and needs to be curtailed by addressing these issues effectively in TB control programme.
authors: Tuberculosis Research Centre, Chennai.
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Sadacharam
authors: P G
authors: PG
authors: Gopi
authors: V
authors: V
authors: Chandrasekaran
authors: S I
authors: SI
authors: Eusuff
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Subramani
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Santha
authors: P R
authors: PR
authors: Narayanan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D023801:Directly Observed Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*