Clinical epidemiology and treatment findings of patients with tuberculosis in Babol city, Iran (2009-2013)

Background Aim: Nowadays tuberculosis (TB) is one of the public health concerns in Iran. The present study aimed to examine the clinical epidemiology and treatment findings of tuberculosis in Babol, Northern Iran. Methods Materials: This cross-sectional study was carried out on medical records of tuberculosis registry pertained to Health Center of Babol, Mazandaran province, Iran. The investigated variables included demographic characteristics and some clinical patterns. To present the findings the descriptive statistics such as mean (standard deviation, SD) and frequency (and relative frequency) were used. Analytical statistics was applied by using chi-square test and independent samples Student’s t-test. Results: The average age of 200 patients infected with tuberculosis was 47.5 years (SD = 21.4), and 58.5% of the cases were male. In both genders, age groups 18-38 years comprised the greatest percentage. During the 5 years study period, 95% of the patients received treatment protocol 1 (including new cases with positive smear, negative smear, and extra-pulmonary). At the end of treatment, 90.5% were improved or treatment period was completed. The most important clinical symptoms in referring the patients to the therapeutic centers were cough (75.1%) and fever (60.9%). Conclusion: Education and giving information to general population about the most important clinical symptoms of tuberculosis such as fever and cough might be effective in early detection and prevention of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Then effective treatment might decrease the burden of the disease