Prevalance of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Patients Visiting National Tuberculosis Centre
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Department of Zoology
Abstract
Tuberculosis is a main public health problem all over the world. On an average one
third of the world’s population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and
problem of being in a state of existence disease. Tuberculosis remains a major threat
in developing country like Nepal. Most of the cases occur in south-east Asia and
Africa. This study mainly aims to find prevalence in terms of age, sex and to assess
the knowledge tuberculosis. The study was analytical and hospital based conducted
from December 2019 to February 2020 in National Tuberculosis Centre in
Bhaktapur. During the study period a total of 765 sputum samples were collected
and examined in the laboratory of National Tuberculosis Centre using fluorescence
microscopy to detect the Mycobacterium and to assess the knowledge a total of 100
suspected patients were interviewed with closed ended questionnaire with multiple
responses. Among the suspected patients, 73 (7%) showed positive with acid fast
bacillus (AFB) and males (62%) were found to be more infected than female (38%)
which was statistically insignificant (χ
xii
2
=0.903, P> 0.05). The highest prevalence
was found in age groups 51-60 (22.64%) which was statistically significant
(F=39.6, P<0.05) between ages. There is mixed response showing good knowledge
in affected parts and symptoms with statistically significant association (F=12.594,
P<0.05) in the views of male and female. In general there is inadequate knowledge
in terms of causative agent, preventive measures and treatment duration. Effective
strategies must be implemented to bring equality to seek health behavior in males
and females are required. Strategy with major focus on cultural and social bias must
be integrated to bring more people aware of the disease.