Socio-demographic Profile of New Sputum Smear Positive Tuberculosis Patients in Tuberculosis unit Khammam

Background: Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The disease primarily affects lungs and causes pulmonary tuberculosis. Problem of tuberculosis is enormous and makes it a major public health problem in India. Under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP), priority is given to the smearpositive cases. Every smear-positive person if left untreated has potential to infect 10-15 persons per year, thereby increasing the pool of infected persons. Materials and Methods: All the new sputum smear positive patients registered in Khammam TU during the second and third quarters of 2009 were enrolled as study subjects. A total of 413 patients were registered as per the inclusion criteria under six Designated Microscopic Centres (DMCs). Results: A total of 413 patients were enrolled in the present study and followed up prospectively for complete duration of their treatment. Out of them 77 (18.64%) were females and 336 (81.36%) were males. Of the total males in this study 0.59% was in the age group ≤ 14 years and 24.7% were in the age group of 35-44years. Of the total females in this study 1.3% was in the age group ≥65 years and 27.28% were in the age group of 15-24years. Conclusion: Present disease cure rate of 85.47% should be improved by ensuring 100% compliance to the treatment by continuous motivation and DOT providers need to be trained to motivate enrolled patients to go for regular periodic sputum follow up examination.