A study was designed to evaluate the outcome of holding sputum camps. The chest symptomatics referred by Peripheral Health Institutions (PHIs) to the camp were compared in terms of proportion of chest symptomatics registered and number of cases found with routine Case-finding actually carried out in the PHIs of an average District Tuberculosis Programme (DTP) and any educative effect of camp on the PHI staff. The study was carried out in 15 PHIs with wide range of performances in Case-finding. A team consisting of Medical Officer (MO), Treatment Organiser and Laboratory Technician of National TB Institute conducted sputum camps by involving the local staff and MOs of PHIs. The MOs of PHIs registered all the eligible symptomatics from the daily outpatients for a period of one month before the due date of the camp. The sputum was collected, slides prepared and patients advised to come on the camp date. A total of 528 chest symptomatics who reported at the PHIs during camp month were registered. Of them, 380 patients' sputum smears were prepared and 25 were found positive. Of the 528 symptomatics referred to the camp, only 86 (16.3%) actually turned up and 4 (16%) were positive. Prior to the sputum camp, 54 smear positive cases were diagnosed by these centres in 6 months. In the subsequent 6 months, 112 cases were diagnosed.

The study clearly shows that the efficacy of Case-finding by the sputum camp method is very low in comparison with integrated Case-finding at PHIs. More than 80% of the cases were missed by the camp by way of loss due to referral on the camp day. However, there was significant increase in the total number of cases diagnosed during 6 months after the camp, in comparison to 6 months prior to camp, thus, indicating the educative effect of the camp on the PHI MOs. The integrated sustained Case-finding activity in the PHIs cannot be substituted with the periodic Case-finding camps or holding of 'specialised clinics'.