Treatment outcomes of patients placed on treatment under directly observed therapy short-course (DOTS)

oleh: Kaur Gurpreet, Goel N, Kumar Dinesh, Janmeja A, Swami H, Kalia Meenu

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2008-01-01

Deskripsi

<b>Background</b> : Tuberculosis continues to be a pressing health problem in India. The Revised National Tuberculosis Programme (RNTCP), an application of Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) in India, launched in 1997 needs contin-uous evaluation. <b> Objective</b> : To study the outcomes of treatment among the patients put on DOTS under RNTCP in Chandigarh, UT. <b> Material &#x0026; Methods</b> : A Longitudi-nal study was conducted during 2004-2005 in 13 Microscopic centres (MC&#x2032;s) spread over 2 Tuberculosis Units (TU&#x2032;s) under District Tuberculosis Centre (DTC) in Union Territory (UT), Chandigarh. A sample of 265 respondents, selected by two-stage stratified random sampling technique, was recruited in the study cohort. Data analysis was done using SPSS-10 statistical software package. <b> Results</b> : For Category I and Category II patients, the Success rate was 98.6&#x0025; and 90.4&#x0025; respectively. The overall default rate was 1.1&#x0025; and failure rate was 2.6&#x0025;. For re-treatment cases, failure rate was higher i.e. 5.8&#x0025;. The sputum conversion rate among the new smear positive cases was 93.8&#x0025; at 3 months of treatment. For the re-treatment cases, spu-tum conversion rate at 3 months was 94.1&#x0025;. <b> Conclusion</b> : The study concludes that RNTCP is running successfully in UT Chandigarh, having high success rate and low default rate. The reasons for high failure rate should be explored in depth.