Comparative Sero-Epidemiological Prevalence of TB with Acid Fast Bacilli sputum Positive Cases in TB Suspects of Lower Dir

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis is an infection of lungs accompanied by coughing more than two weeks, fever, and night sweat, loss of appetite, weight loss and anorexia. Approximately 33% of the entire world population has infected the incidence of TB is 9 lac new cases each year with mortality rate of 1.3 million. There are 22 high risk burden countries accounting for nearly 80% entire TB of the globe. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional investigation was carried out to analyze patients by both immune chromatographic test and direct sputum smear microscopy. Patients were asked through a questionnaire mentioning the age, name, gender, location, and symptoms of TB. Thrusfield formula was used from veterinary microbiology to calculate the sample number. So, with 95% confidence interval, 5% absolute precision, I analyzed only 324 subjects of interest. Results: The entire positivity rate was 25% in which 79.5% was the rate of positivity by ICT and 20.5% by sputum smear microscopy. Higher positivity by Age range 20-40 showed 40.9% by ICT and by sputum it was found in age group 1-20 years 17.5%. Based on gender, higher positivity rate was found by both tests in females as compared to males. Females were 31.8% positive by ICT and 10% by sputum test. Males were 22.8% positive by ICT and 5% by sputum test. Marital status based higher positivity by ICT was found in married which is 29.11% while positivity in unmarried which is 12.5%. Conclusion: Tuberculosis is still a prevalent disease in lower Dir Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The more positivity rate has found in females as compared to males. It requires further sophisticated investigation to acquire a more accurate result in case of tuberculosis prevalence in lower Dir region of KP province of Pakistan. As the DOTS strategy states, Directly observed treatment and short course is a better way to early case detection and treatment otherwise the disease can become more exaggerated in short period of time because the bacteria is an airborne pathogen so it can freely transmit to the lungs.