Abstract
Tuberculosis has high burden in developing countries like Nepal. This study aims to determine the prevalence of tuberculosis among patients admitted in the department of medicine of a tertiary hospital. A descriptive cross-sectional study of all the patients admitted to the tertiary care hospital from 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2019 was done. Ethical approval was obtained from Institutional Review Committee (Ref: drs2006181387). Convenience sampling method was used. A descriptive analysis of demographic, clinical and laboratory profile of patients was made using Microsoft Excel version 2016. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. Among 6829 patients admitted to the department of medicine, 209 (3.06%) (2.65-3.47 at 95% CI) patients were diagnosed with tuberculosis. Among them, 147 (70.33%) were males and the mean age was 49.77 years. Pulmonary and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis were present in 153 (73.20%) and 56 (26.79%) patients, respectively. Bacteriological confirmation was limited to 107 (70%) of pulmonary tuberculosis and 3 (5%) of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Fever was the commonest presentation in 166 (79.42%) followed by cough in 164 (78.46%), anorexia in 108 (51.67%), weight loss 104 (49.76%), and others. The study showed that the prevalence of tuberculosis among admitted patients was higher than national prevalence.
Highlights
Tuberculosis has high burden in developing countries like Nepal
Human immunodeficiency Viruses (HIV) co-infection, smoking and diabetes are significantly associated with tuberculosis infection and attributable deaths.[5,6,7]
This study aims to determine the prevalence of tuberculosis among patients admitted in the department of medicine of a tertiary hospital
Summary
Tuberculosis has high burden in developing countries like Nepal. Tuberculosis is one of the commonest causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide.[1,2] Evolving resistance to anti-tubercular drugs is a huge therapeutic challenge.[3] In Nepal, around 69,000 people develop new active infections every year.[4] Human immunodeficiency Viruses (HIV) co-infection, smoking and diabetes are significantly associated with tuberculosis infection and attributable deaths.[5,6,7] Tuberculosis commonly presents with cough, fever, hemoptysis, anorexia and unintentional weight loss.[5] Presentation varies depending upon infection site and other patient factors.[8] A non-specific presentation, limited utility of culture, suboptimal sensitivity of acid fast bacilli (AFB) stain[9] and unavailability of test like Xpert Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)/rifampicin (RIF) at the point-of-care[12,13] test make diagnosis a challenge
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