CHAPTER IV - TREATMENT BEHAVIOUR OF TB PATIENTS <<Back
 
a) Treatment Failure & The Problem of Non Adherence
 
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AU : Sloan JP & Sloan MC
TI : An assessment of default and non-compliance in tuberculosis control in Pakistan.
SO : TRANS R SOC TROP MED HYG 1981, 75, 717-718.
DT : Per
AB :

A study was conducted in a rural hospital in the Sind area of Pakistan, where the standard treatment was an 18-month course of isoniazid and thiacetazone, combined with PAS for the first three months. All patients were being treated for pulmonary TB although several also had orthopaedic, abdominal and neurological complications. The case notes of each of the 300 patients attending the TB Control Clinic at the hospital over a three-year period were studied. From this group, both attendance and default patterns were assessed. Sixty of these patients attending the clinic at the time of the study (Aug.-Sept. 1977) were individually assessed regarding compliance to the prescribed treatment. Compliant patients were compared with non-compliant ones. The results revealed a default rate of 66 percent and a compliance rate of 53 percent for PAS and 60 percent isoniazid measured by objective pharmacological tests. Suggestions were made for a change from the prescribed out-patient approach, to intermittent dose chemotherapy administered by health care workers in the community.

KEYWORDS: COMPLIANCE; DEFAULT; PAKISTAN.
 
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