Mortality and failure among tuberculosis patients who did not complete treatment in Vietnam: a cohort study

摘要

BackgroundTuberculosis treatment failure and death rates are low in the Western Pacific Region, including Vietnam. However, failure or death may also occur among patients who did not complete treatment, i.e. reported as default or transfer-out. We aimed to assess the proportion failures and deaths among new smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients with reported default or transfer-out.Treatment outcomes rates were 1.4% default, 3.0% transfer-out, 0.4% failure and 2.6% death in northern Vietnam in 2003.