Medicina comunitaria y educación para la salud

Abstracto

Management Outcomes of Tuberculosis Cases in a Tertiary Hospital in Southwestern Nigeria

AA Salako and OO Sholeye

Nigeria is currently ranked 5th among the 22 high tuberculosis burden countries in the world. This paper analyses the management outcomes of hospitalized and ambulatory cases of tuberculosis in Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu.

A retrospective study was conducted in September 2009, using the records of 263 hospitalized patients managed for tuberculosis between January 2000 and December 2002. Information on the management outcome of 308 ambulatory cases of tuberculosis managed by the community health clinic on directly observed therapy short course was also collected for the same time period for comparison. The case fatality rate of the hospitalized cases was found to be 17.1%, while that of the ambulatory cases was 5.2%. The mortality rate among those having co-infection (with TB/HIV) was found to be almost four times higher in the hospitalized cases than the ambulatory cases.

Intensification of tuberculosis health education involving the community health workers, early diagnosis and treatment with directly observed therapy short course and contact tracing are recommended to nosedive the high mortality associated with late presentation and complications resulting in hospital admissions.