Re-evaluated Treatment Outcomes of Bacteriologically Positive Patients with Tuberculosis Registered at an Urban Health Center, Lusaka, Zambia, 2023.

BACKGROUND

The objective is to re-evaluate treatment outcomes of all bacteriologically positive patients with tuberculosis (TB) registered at Facility X in 2023.

METHODS

A retrospective cohort study was conducted on treatment outcomes of patients with TB using TB treatment and laboratory TB registers and treatment cards. Patients with incorrect treatment outcomes and those who were not evaluated by the facility had correct treatment outcomes assigned. In addition, treatment outcomes for patients who were transferred out were retrieved.

RESULTS

A total of 350 patients with bacteriologically positive TB were registered at facility X in 2023. The number of male patients was 274 (78%), the age of the patients ranged from 2.9 to 80 years, and 262 (74.9%) were new patients. The health facility managed to evaluate 340 (97%) patients, of whom 334 (95.4%) were correctly evaluated, while 16 (4.6%) were either incorrectly evaluated or not evaluated at all. As a result of this re-evaluation, the proportion of the evaluated patients increased from 97% (340 of 350 patients) to 99.4% (348 of 350 patients). The cure rate rose from 90.6% to 92.2% and the treatment success rate increased from 90.9% to 92.9%.

CONCLUSION

This study has demonstrated that it is possible to evaluate almost all patients with TB at the end of their treatment. Inaccuracies in reporting TB data can negatively affect the implementation of TB programs. Health facilities should strive to correctly evaluate all patients with TB.