The prevalence of mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in Hospital Pulau Pinang / Mohamad Zairul Amirudin Zulkifli

Background of study: Tuberculosis is a treatable disease and powerful drugs are available, TB remains a great public health concern worldwide. Today, TB ranks number eight on the list of the most common causes of death worldwide, and it is the second most common cause of death from an infectious disease after the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (1). The objectives of this thesis were to study the socio-demographic background, clinical and laboratory data of TB patients in Penang Hospital, and to determine the prevalence of the patterns and types of drug regimen used in their treatment. Methods: A retrospective study of all TB patients registered at the chest clinic was conducted May 2002 to February 2003. In this study, a total number of 207 patients in Hospital Pulau Pinang were carried out and their demographic data were accessed through the form. Analysis was found that 55.5% were Chinese, 33.8% Malay, 72.9% male, 49.6% smokers and 52.2% secondary educated. In term of disease and drug data, 83.1% of the patients had pulmonary TB, 11.1% had extra pulmonary TB, 2.4% TB with HIV and 1.9% had drug resistant TB, 5.4% of the patients were on 2SHRZ/4SHR, 21.7% were on 2HRZE/4HR, 10.1% were on 2HRZ/4HR, 4.8% were on 2SHREZ/4SHR and 1.9% were on 2HRE/4HR as for anti-TB drug regimens which shows standard abbreviations are adopted: S = Streptomycin, H = Isoniazide, R = Rifampicin, Z= Pyrazinamide, and E = Ethambutol; and the number used refer to “month of treatment”. Conclusion: Tuberculosis was previously uncommon and largely pathogenic. The findings showed that the majority of the patients were Chinese, male and secondary educated. Most of the patients had pulmonary TB and about one third of the patients had diabetes. Besides, commonly used regimen was SHRZ/4SHR. However, many unresolved issues still exist, especially with regard to diagnosis TB should not be ignored but requires careful assessment.