Prevalence of tuberculosis with reference to female of Biratnagar sub metropolitan city, Morang Nepal

Abstract

Tuberculosis kills more than one million women per year, and it is estimated that 646 million women and girls are already infected with tuberculosis globally. This study is related to the prevalence of tuberculosis of female in Biratnagar sub-metropolitan city. Among the respondents 89% of female TB cases were found married and the percentage of the unmarried respondents was only 11%. Among all the respondents 89% patients might have transmitted the disease to their spouses and children and 11% of the patients have transmitted to their family members.

Seventy percent of female TB cases were literate and 3% were SLC passed though 19% of female TB cases were illiterate. Being dependent on husbands and in-laws, women feared refusal by husbands, other family members and society by contrast, economic burden was the main concern of men throughout the health care-seeking process and treatment period. There are only 7% of the respondents had enough income by their own to maintain the food for more that six month in a year apart from that they had to manage their hand to mouth problem by doing daily ways labour work around. Majority of TB cases 25% were from Janjati groups of people. The second most majority of TB cases 24% were from the Brahmin / Chhetri and third most major group of cases 22% were from other castes like Muslim, Sah, Koiri etc. Similarly, Dalit covers 19% of total attendance of the patients. The minor representation was from the Newar group of the people who attended only 10% of total cases.

The majority of the TB cases registered for treatment are under the age group of 15 to 54.Among all respondents majority 65% of the female TB cases replied the cause to TB is due to germs but there are 20.83% of respondents who do not know the actual cause of disease. However, 6.94% of respondents replied that the cause of TB is due to food and few numbers i.e. 4.17% of respondents replied that they got the disease due to curse of god and 2.78% of respondents said that they have got the disease as a result of previous life. By analysing this data it is seen that 35% of the respondents have no any awareness about the cause of tuberculosis.48.61% of the total respondents replied that TB is transmitted from TB patient to the healthy person and 30.56% of the respondents replied that TB is transmitted through the air. This shows that the awareness level of the people on TB is good because 79% has got right knowledge of TB transmission

Among the total respondents 58.33% of the TB suspects seek the treatment at the health institutions where the TB diagnosis and treatment service is available at free of cost. This is one of the positive sign of awareness for the TB control and prevention. However 15.28% respondents seek the treatment from the local healers and 5.56% of the respondents seek treatment from the unqualified local medical practitioners. Majority of the TB suspects were helped by their families for the TB diagnosis and treatment. In response to the helping behaviour from family regarding decision making for TB treatment and care, 48.61% of the decisions were made by the family members among all respondents. The study shows that 30.56% of the decision for the diagnosis and treatment were made by the patient which was the good sing of empowerment of the female TB patients. Some of the TB suspects were depended on neighbour (11.11%) and society members (9.72%) who helped them to make decision for treatment and care. Majority of the TB cases were behaved fairly by the health workers for diagnosis and treatment, however, some of the cases were not satisfied with the behaviour of the health workers