Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is yet a major global public health issue, with records of millions of new cases and deaths yearly, the burden being more in the developing countries partly due to missed or improper diagnosis. Most available methods for TB diagnosis have shortcomings, hence the current detection rate of TB is low and many positive cases are missed out. The main objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of the different forms of TB in NAUTH, Nnewi, Nigeria and the geographic TB- associated risk factors. A total of 200 pulmonary and extra pulmonary TB suspects comprising 102 males and 98 females, with a mean age 39.0±14.5 years with cough lasting for more than 2 weeks and accessing care at the TB (DOTS) Center of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi were tested for TB using Gene Xpert MTB/RIF technique. Informed consent was obtained from the patients. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of NAUTH, Nnewi. Questionnaires were used to capture socio-demographic details of patients. Data were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences, version 23.0 to carry out chi square tests of statistical significance accordingly. Result: Twenty five of 200 subjects were diagnosed as TB positive while the remaining 175(87.5%) were negative for TB using the Gene Xpert MTB/RIF assay. Among the 25 positive subjects, 16/25(64.0%) had pulmonary tuberculosis, while 4/25(16.0%) had extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB), 3/25(12.0%) had Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDRTB) and 2/25 (8%) had TB-HIV co-infection. The age group of 31-40 years old had the highest rate of TB infection 44.0%) followed by the age group, 41-50 years old (28%). The males had a higher rate of infection (64.0%) than the females (36.0%).
展开▼
