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Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial disease that can be spread through the air. It usually attacks the lungs, but it can also affect and damage the other parts of the body such as the brain, kidneys, or spine. Globally, the disease remains to be a major health problem in countries suffering from poverty and unsettlement like Sudan. Our study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of pulmonary TB and the value of the socio-demographic characteristic of patients and laboratory findings in the assessment of tuberculosis infection. Methods: During the period from May 2017 to December 2018, 1434 subjects were included. M.tuberculosis infection was examined using Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) stain and GeneXpert test, and Human immunodeficiency virus infection was checked by the immuno-chromatographic test. Results: Out of 1434 participants, 795 (55.4%) were males and 639 (44.6%) were females as well as 670 (46.7%) were suffering from infection relapse. The percentage of HIV infection, MTB detection, and RF resistance among the study contributors was 1.4%, 16.5%, and 15.5%, respectively. Infection relapse was more in females than males. Among the medically suspected new participants (449), the overall reported prevalence for pulmonary TB was 15.8% based on the Gene Xpert test. Furthermore, the percentage of RF resistance was lower in females than males and participants age 1-20 years compared to 21-40, 41-60, and 61-80 age groups. There was a significant difference in the microscopy findings among disease history, bacillary levels and RF susceptibility patterns, P-values less than 0.05. Moreover, the odd of detection of a high bacillary level was significantly less likely in females than males. Whereas, it is higher in case of treatment failure and infection with RF resistant strain, P-values less than 0.05. Conclusions: The findings of the current study were illustrated the current prevalence of pulmonary TB and shown the value of socio-demographic features and laboratory findings in the assessment of pulmonary tuberculosis infection.