Profile and Treatment Outcome Among Tuberculosis Patients Retreatment With Category Ii Regimen Under Rntcp, South India

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) retreatments have become the matter of concern, with increase in drug resistance among failure and relapse cases of tuberculosis. Standard category II regimen is still the main TB retreatment regimen of national programs in resource limited settings. AIM: The primary objective of this study was to describe the profile and treatment outcome of TB retreatment cases treated with category II regimen. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross sectional study that reviewed the routinely collected data of patients with TB retreatment registered for treatment under DOTS for the period of 1 January 2011 to May 2014 was carried out at Sri Siddhartha medical college, Tumkur, Karnataka, India. RESULTS: Among 83 retreatment patients 60(71.08%) of the patients had pulmonary TB and 23(28.92 %) of the patients had extra pulmonary TB. Among 60 pulmonary TB 51(85%) were sputum positive PTB patients. Treatment after default 32(38.60%) and others 32 (38.60%) were commonest reason for the TB retreatment. Majority of 'TB retreatment 'patients were aged 21-40 (40, 48.20%), predominantly males (67.50%) than females (32.53%) with male: female ratio is 2: 1 shows highly statistically significant (p<0.001). All patients were treated with the standard RNTCP retreatment. Treatment outcome was successful (cured and treatment completed) only in 59.04% of patients, treatment after default was 18.07%, treatment after failure 10.84% and death was 12.05%. Treatment success was more in females, 21-40 years age group Patients classified as 'retreatment relapse' were significantly more likely to achieve high treatment success (81.81%) than all other types of retreatment cases. CONCLUSION: RNTCP should be strengthened to combat resurgence of retreatment cases and to improve the treatment outcome among retreatment cases.