Status of smear-positive TB patients at 2-3 years after initiation of treatment under a DOTS programme.

Sadacharam, K.; Gopi, P.G.; Chandrasekaran, V.; Eusuff, S.I.; Subramani, R.; Santha, T.; Narayanan, P.R.

Indian Journal of Tuberculosis; 2007; 54; 199-203.

Summary: Objective : To describe the status of cases 2-3 years after the initiation of treatment under DOTS.

Setting : 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.

Conclusion : 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.

Key words : DOTS, Follow-up, Mortality, Smear-positive

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