MEASURE TO IMPROVE DETECTON OF SMEAR POSITIVE CASES UNDER RNTCP: COMPARISION OF COUGH ≥ 2WEEKS VS ≥3 WEEKS

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains the number one killer infectious diseaseaffecting adults in developing countries. The change in duration of symptoms from two weeks or more under RNTP to three weeks or more under RNTCP was a retrograde and untenable step, made without any indigenous research support. Objectives: To estimates the prevalence of chest symptomatic among adult outpatients attending health facilities. To compare the efficiency of sputum examination in detecting smear positive TB cases among TB suspects with cough for ≥2 weeks or ≥3 weeks. Method: A cross-sectional study carried out at the 2 TU (5 DMC) of Vadodara corporation, Vadodara. Participants: sputum positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients. Results: The study conducted in the fourth quarter included 143 (23.1 percent) smear positive cases of TB. Thus 23.1% of the population was infected in contrast to 2-3 percent in developed countries. There was a 30.1% increase in the number of individuals with chest symptoms (from 475 to 618) and a 19.2% increase in the detection of smear positive cases (from 125 to 149) when ≥ 2 weeks instead of ≥ 3 weeks was used as the criterion for case finding. Conclusion: Using cough ≥ 2 weeks as the criterion for screening patients for sputum microscopy, instead of using ≥ 3 weeks as the screening criterion.