title: Health Professionals Expose TB Patients to Stigmatization in Society: Insights from Communities in an Urban District in Ghana.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine how the activities and attitudes of health professionals expose TB patients to stigmatization in the community.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative research approach using individual interviews and focus groups
  
  
  METHODS
  Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan district in the western region of Ghana
  
  
  METHODS
  Members in nine communities in the district
  
  
  METHODS
  Words and statements that depict how activities and attitudes of health professionals may expose TB patients to stigmatization
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five interrelated ways by which activities and attitudes of health professionals may expose TB patients to stigmatization in the community were identified in data: TB control practices; fear-based responses to TB; inappropriate health education messages; medical licensing for sellers; and prohibition of burial rites.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings may explain the diagnostic delay and low TB case detection rate in Ghana. This calls for intensification of education on TB and regular organization of refresher courses and possibly retraining of health professionals in TB control and management. When health professionals are seen to be treating TB patients as 'normal' individuals, it has the potential of changing the society's perception about the disease.
authors.affiliation: Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital, Communicable Diseases Unit, P.O. Box 229, Sekondi, Ghana.
authors.forename: Ea
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dodor