A FOLLOW UP STUDY ON REVISED NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS CONTROL PROGRAMME (RNTCP): RESULTS FROM A SINGLE CENTRE STUDY

OBJECTIVE: To know the follow up status of tuberculosis patients after 1 year of completion of treatment in RNTCP. MATERIALS & METHODS: Those patients of tuberculosis, who were registered from June 2003 to June 2004 at DOTS centre of our institution, were followed up at their homes after one year of completion of treatment between August 2005 and August 2006, with the help of health visitor. Patients were followed up clinically and symptomatic patients were also followed radiologically as well as bacteriologicalty. Results of the study were recorded in terms of number of patients remained asymptomatic, number of patients relapsed and number of patients died. RESULTS: Out of 237 patients registered, 8 patients died during treatment period, 12 patients defaulted the treatment, the number of failures was 5 and 212 patients were declared cured/treatment completed. Out of these 212 patients 60 were unavailable for interview due to various reasons. The study observed that out of a total of 152 patients interviewed, 137 patients (90.1%) of remained asymptomatic, 11 patients (7.2%) had relapsed and 4 patients (2.6%) died during follow up. CONCLUSION: The study observed that majority of patients (90.1%) re-mained asymptomatic after the completion of one year of treatment under DOTS.