Abstract:
Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) has embarked on a mission to
reduce tuberculosis (TB) prevalence by 90% and completely eradicate TB infection by
the years 2035 and 2050 respectively (Barberis, Bragazzi, Galluzzo, et al., 2017). The
attainment of these two major goals will depend largely on the successful preventative
measures, diagnosis, and treatment for both latent and undiagnosed active TB
infections.
Aim: We evaluated the nature of the various diagnostic modalities employed in the
diagnosis of tuberculosis in adult patients notified as having TB at Pietersburg
Hospital from January to December 2020.
Methods: A retrospective descriptive, observational quantitative study based on
secondary data was conducted at a tertiary hospital. The study included 135 cases of
TB patients aged 12 years and above, that were notified to the infection prevention
and control unit (IPCU) over a 12-month period. The data was captured using an
appropriately designed data collection tool and analysed using STATA 14 (College
Station, Texas 77845 USA) software.
Results: A total of 135 of notified individuals with TB were analysed. The data set
comprised of 57% (77/135) females and 43% (58/135) with a mean age of 37 years
with an interquartile range of 29 to 45 years. Over half of the cases were notified
as pulmonary TB (57.7%), while the remaining cases were notified as various forms
of extra pulmonary TB. In this study, the commonest form of TB diagnostic method
was imaging (92%) followed by sputum tests (55.6%), TB blood culture (52.5%), and
urine LAM (36.3%), special fluid analysis (25.2%) and lastly tissue histology (3%). The
commonest co-morbidity identified was HIV (92%). The urine LAM (100%) and TB
blood culture (50.5%) were performed mainly in HIV positive patients.
Conclusion: In this study, TB was mostly diagnosed using various imaging
techniques more than microbiological tests such as sputum, urine LAM, TB blood
culture, special fluid analysis or tissue histology. Furthermore, HIV emerged as
the commonest co-morbid condition.
