Dr Vijayashree Y, faculty and PhD scholar at Institute of Public Health, article titled ” Determinants of sputum conversion at two months of treatment under National Tuberculosis Programme, South India “published in “International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health”, This study carried out in 2012 to investigate the reasons for low sputum conversion rate in Sira (among patients registered with RNTCP).
Background: In India, Revised National Tuberculosis (TB) control programme (RNTCP) offers free diagnosis and treatment for TB, based on the Directly Observed Treatment Short (DOTS) course strategy. Under RNTCP, sputum conversion rate (SCR), at the end of 2 months of treatment is an important operational indicator, which is ideally expected to be 90%.
Aim and Objectives: The objective of the present work was to investigate the factors associated with low SCR at the end of 2 months of treatment in Sira TB unit, Tumkur District, India.
Material and Methods: It is a retrospective cohort study of all new sputum smear-positive patients registered in RNTCP in 2011. Data were retrieved from the TB register maintained at the District TB center. Chi-square and Student’s t-test were used for analysis of the study variables between patients who were sputum positive and sputum negative at the end of 2 months of treatment. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to determine the risk contributed by the variables towards non-conversion of sputum.
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