Evaluation and planning in national tuberculosis control programmes: the usefulness of the standardised patient treatment card
Ipuge, Y.A.; Rieder, H.L.; Becx-Bleumink, M.; Kimerling, M.E.
East African Medical Journal 74(12): 816-818
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0012-835X PMID: 9557430 Document Number: 273740
The tuberculosis (TB) patient treatment card proposed by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung and Disease provides both patient and protocol-specific information. In addition to data on age and gender, the cards contain information on body weight, drug dosing, sputum smear microscopy results, and the use of chest radiography for diagnosis. All 279 treatment cards of patients scheduled to attend one specific TB clinic day in Kinondoni district, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were analyzed as an example of a rapid operations evaluation method for identifying issues important to a national tuberculosis program (NTP). 225 patients were diagnosed with pulmonary TB, of which males comprised 61%. 92% were cases with no prior history of treatment. Patients under age 15 years and those aged 25-54 were more likely than other age groups to be sputum smear-negative. A chest radiograph was obtained to support the diagnosis in 61 of 160 cases diagnosed as sputum smear-negative pulmonary TB. Initial drug dosing based upon patient's weight revealed frequent dosing errors of isoniazid and pyrazinamide in sputum smear-positive patients. Observed error was almost exclusively overdosing.