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 54(4): 199-203
2007
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-5707 PMID: 18072535 Document Number: 200815
To describe the status of cases 2-3 years after the initiation of treatment under DOTS. 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. 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. 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.