Trend of sputum smear positivity among presumptive tuberculosis cases visiting respiratory disease centre of Western Maharashtra, India

Introduction: India amounts to about a quarter of the tuberculosis (TB) burden worldwide. In 2016 about 28 lakh cases occurred and 4.5 lakh people died due to TB. In March 2017 the Government of India (GoI) declared that the new aim for TB in India was the elimination of TB by 2025. Objectives: To estimate the trends and gender distribution of sputum smear positive tuberculosis among presumptive TB cases visiting respiratory disease centre of Western Maharashtra. Materials and Methods: A Record based cross sectional study was conducted in a respiratory disease centre of Western Maharashtra, India during Jan 2018. All registered patients suspected of TB visiting the respiratory disease centre from year 2013 to 2017 were included as study population. Patients having incomplete data were excluded from study. Data was collected from master register at department of pathology of respiratory disease centre and was compiled and entered into MS Excel 2007. The trend of case detection, gender and TB, Sputum positive / negative cases were analyzed. The trend was statistically analysed for 2013-2017 by using chi – square test for trend. Trend was considered significant if p value is less than 0.05. Results: Among total suspected cases, proportion of sputum positive cases showed upward trend of TB from year 2013 to 2015 but thereafter linear downward by 2017. Out of total sputum smear positive cases 94.12% were males and 5.88% were females. Conclusion: Data indicates that tuberculosis is a great challenge in Western Maharashtra, India and need to strengthen the awareness programme about TB and involvement of public private partnership, early case detection and adherence with treatment to control the burden of TB.