Mycobacterial Diseases
Open Access
ISSN: 2161-1068
+44 1478 350008
ISSN: 2161-1068
+44 1478 350008
Muhabaw Jemal, Daniel Tarekegne, Tadesse Atanaw, Ashenafi Ebabu, Mengistu Endris, Belay Tessema, Feleke Moges and Tekalign Deressa
Background: Despite the availability of effective drugs, tuberculosis remains to be a major public health problem in the world. This study sought to determine treatment outcomes and to investigate associated factors for poor treatment outcomes among TB patients in Northwest Ethiopia.
Method: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using medical records of TB patients who registered and treated at Metema hospital. Bivariate and multivariate analysis was used to determine predictors of unsuccessful outcomes. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. P value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results: Of the total 2970 patients, 2657 (89.5%) were newly diagnosed TB cases; whereas 167 (5.7%) and 146 (4.9%) were re-treatment and transfer cases, respectively. About sixty percent of the patients were male. The median age (SD) of the patients were 28 years (14.38) and 30.7% of patients were within the age group of 25-34 years. Five hundred eight (20.1%) TB patients were co-infected with HIV. With respect to the treatment outcomes, 65.3% were successfully treated, 88 (3.0%) died, 107 (3.3%) defaulted, 22 (0.7%) failed and 814 (27.4%) were transferred out. A declining trend of treatment success rate (TSR) was observed, from 73.1% in 2009 to 54.5% in 2011/12. Co-infection with HIV (P=0.00) and being male (P=0.02) were associated with unsuccessful treatment outcomes.
Conclusion: Treatment success rate (TSR) of TB patients was still low and a declining trend of TSR was observed over the study period. Co-infection with HIV and being male were found to be correlated with poor treatment outcomes. Thus, we recommend targeted medical interventions of the patients at high risk for the unfavorable treatment outcomes.