smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis (tb) patients suspected to have drug resistant tb in programmatic management of drug resistant tb unit in khyber pakhtunkhwa, pakistan

Background: tuberculosis remains a major health problem with more than 3 million deaths and 9 million new cases annually. pakistan ranks 5th in the top 22 tuberculosis burden countries. prevalence of all tuberculosis cases is 342 per 100,000 individuals in pakistan. objectives: the objective of the present study was to assess the frequency and pattern of tuberculosis in a population from khyber pakhtunkhwa. methods: this prospective study was conducted in programmatic management of drug resistant tuberculosis unit lady reading hospital peshawar, pakistan between january, 2014 and december, 2014. a total of 1330 specimens from suspected drug resistant tuberculosis patients were analyzed by light-emitting diodes-fluorescence microscopy (led-fm). the spss 18 software was used for data analysis. results: of the 1330 drug resistant tuberculosis suspect patients tested by led-fm microscopy, 824 (62%) were smear positive for mycobacterium and 306 (38%) were negative. mean age was 30.92 ± 14.91 years. out of smear positive cases, 462 (56.1%) were female, 722 (87.6%) were previously treated, and 446 (54.1%) were in < 30 years old. a statistically significant association was observed between female gender, previous tuberculosis treatment, and age category (< 30 years) with smear positive results. conclusions: female gender, previous treatment, and young age (< 30 years) were significantly associated with smear positivity. early detection and effective treatment of active tuberculosis cases is of paramount importance to reduce the burden of tubercu- losis. light-emitting diodes- fluorescence microscopy is the best method for early diagnosis of tuberculosis if performed by an experienced microbiologist, as it is reliable and inexpensive.