Background: The management and control of pulmonary bacteriologically confirmed (PBC) tuberculosis (TB) also\nknown as infectious TB is important not only to monitor for resistance but also to check for severity, treatment\nresponse and limit its spread.\nMethod: A retrospective analysis of diagnosis smear results of PBC TB patients in Kampala district registered\nbetween January 2012 and December 2015 at 65 TB diagnosis and treatment units (DTUs) was done.\nResults: Of the 10,404 records; 6551 (63.0%) belonged to PBC TB patients, 3734 (57.0%) of whom were male.\nSputum smear microscopy was the diagnostic test most commonly used 4905 (74.9%) followed by GeneXpert\ntesting, 1023 (15.6%). Majority, 1951 (39.8%), of the PBC TB patients had a smear positivity grading of 3+ (> 10 acidfast\nbacillus (AFB)/Fields). Public facilities diagnosed more PBC TB patients compared to private facilities, 3983 (60.\n8%) vs 2566 (39.2%). From 2012 through 2015, there was a statistically significant increase in PBC TB patients\nenrolled on anti-TB treatment from 1389 to 2194 (p = 0.000). The percentage of HIV positive co-infected PBC TB\npatients diagnosed decreased from 597(43%) to 890(40.6%) (p = 0.000) within same period. Linkage to HIV care\nimproved from 229\n(34.4%) in 2012 to 464 (52.1%) in 2015 (p = 0.000). The treatment success rate (TSR) for PBC TB patients improved\nfrom 69% in 2012 to 75.5% by end of 2015 (p = 0.001) with an improvement in cure rate from 52.3% to 62% (p = 0.\n000). There was an observed significant decrease in TB related mortality from 8.9 to 6.4% (p = 0.013).\nConclusion: The proportion of diagnosed PBC TB patients increased from 2012 to 2015. PBC TB patients diagnosed\nwith 3+ smear positivity grading results consistently contributed to the highest proportion of diagnosed PBC TB\npatients from 2012 to 2015. This could be due to the delay in diagnosis of TB patients because of late presentation\nof patients to clinics. A prospective study of PBC TB patients diagnosed with 3+ smear positivity grading may\nelucidate the reasons for the delay to diagnosis. Further, we propose a study of wider scope to estimate how many\npeople a single PBC TB patient is likely to infect with TB before being diagnosed and treated.
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