Abstract
Background:
Pakistan has high tuberculosis (TB) burden with alarming mortality and morbidity, and its rate increases day by day, especially in remote areas where access of quality health is not available.
Objective:
The objective of the study was to determine the incidence rate of pulmonary TB in the Dir valley among the suspected patients according to age-, gender-, and location-wise prevalence of the disease.
Methods:
A retrospective descriptive study was designed from January 2015 to December 2016. All the 556 people registered are suspected patients of pulmonary tuberculosis sputum smear (PTB-SS) positive, whereas the remaining cases were diagnosed with extra-pulmonary TB and hence excluded from the study.
Results:
The ratio of PTB-SS-positive cases was higher in females (50.5%, n = 281) compared with males (49.5%, n = 275). Furthermore, in the age group 1 to 20 years, the percentage of PTB-SS-positive cases was 28.1% (n = 156), in 21 to 40 years 40.3% (n = 224), in 41 to 60 years 18.7% (n = 104), in 61 to 80 years 11.2% (n = 62), and at age group >81 years, it was 1.8% (n = 10). No difference was found in the years 2015 and 2016 regarding PTB-SS-positive cases registration. Age and health care facilities (
P
< .000) and treatment outcome (
P
< .000) have a strong relationship. No significant relation was found with other demographics variables (
P
> 0.05).
Conclusion:
It was concluded from our finding that TB was considerably increased in the general population of District Dir (Lower), and proper supervision, diagnosis, treatment, and awareness of rapid prophylactic measures are needed to eradicate the issue.