Importance of Properly Identifying Presumptive TB Cases

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease and India carries one fourth of global burden of tuberculosis. To break the chain of transmission, it is imperative to find all TB patients at the earliest and link them to the existing diagnostic and therapeutic services as soon as possible.

Most patients with TB attend health facilities for seeking relief of symptoms. It is important to suspect tuberculosis among these chest symptomatic patients and subject them for sputum examination. Missing a presumptive TB patient is a missed opportunity to eliminate TB for following reasons:

1. These TB patients, if not diagnosed, will continue to spread the infection. Each active TB case can infect 10-15 people during a year, if left untreated.
2. If left untreated, it is likely that more than half of them die by three years.
3. TB is curable, but early diagnosis and treatment initiation is essential prerequisite. 

There can be symptomatic cases in the community which should be identified utilizing various case finding approaches like active TB case finding campaign, mobile camps, population-based screening apart from screening in HIV and non-communicable disease setting.

A proper identification of presumptive TB patient is therefore important. All health workers and community volunteers should be encouraged to identify and refer presumptive TB patients to Designated Microscopic Centres (DMCs) for early diagnosis and treatment to prevent further spread of the infection.

Resources

• Training Modules (1-4) for Programme Managers and Medical Officers, 2020.

Kindly provide your valuable feedback on the page to the link provided HERE