TUBERCULOSIS DIAGNOSIS

Background: Delay in diagnosis of Tuberculosis (TB) and initiation of antituberculartreatment (ATT) contributes to more severe disease manifestations in the individualand higher disease transmission in the community. Objective: To find out the delays indiagnosis and treatment of TB patients and to describe determinants related to these delays.Study Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Setting: TB Directly Observed TreatmentShort course (DOTS) Center of Jinnah Hospital, Lahore. Period: July to September 2013.Methods: 373 tuberculosis patients attending TB Directly Observed Treatment Short course(DOTS) Center of Jinnah Hospital, Lahore were included using simple random sampling. Delaywas then categorized into low delay and high delay depending upon the median of total delaywhich was of 97 days. Results: It was concluded that the total median diagnostic and treatmentdelay related to both patients as well as health system was 97 days. Results revealed that about55.7% patients had high total delay (delay>median) and 44.3% patients had low total delay.Among those patients with high delay, 58.7% were aged above 35 years, 81.4% were females,96.4% were illiterate, 54.8%were living in rural areas, 76.7% travelled greater than 5 km to reachthe nearest health facility and 56.9% patients had more than one health seeking encounterswith health care professionals before initial diagnosis. Conclusion: Current study, therefore,highlights the delays in diagnosis, treatment and the determinants of delay showing healthsystem related diagnostic and treatment delay being the main contributor to the total delay.More than half of the patients with TB showed a delay in initiation of treatment. Efforts should bemade to minimize health system related delays. Local private practitioners should also be takenon board in combating tuberculosis.