A survey was carried out in the population of Bisnupur Blocks I and II in the south 24 parganas district of West Bengal to find out the level of general knowledge and awareness about TB and also the prevalent social attitudes towards the disease. The target population was classified into two broad groups comprising persons living within and outside the research project area respectively. The results showed that the general knowledge of TB was high in both groups and about 24% of the new patients did not know the correct duration of treatment. The majority of people interviewed, favored hospitalization of the TB patients and the patients' belief that consuming anti-TB drugs without taking a high protein diet was futile contributed to default on drug collection. Women with TB denied breast-milk to their babies, making the babies vulnerable to different diseases including TB. Health education increased the awareness of TB while negative social attitudes for TB patients persisted because most people were not convinced of the curability of the disease.

The above findings led to the conclusion that community leaders should be actively involved in any TB control programme and that health education should be an important component of the TB programme.

A retrospective cohort of 996 TB patients, between Jan. 1986 and Feb. 1987, diagnosed and treated at a rural TB clinic in 24 Parganas District of West Bengal, was analysed with regard to case-holding, treatment completion and failure to achieve a successful result vis-a-vis sputum-positive patients. The overall treatment completion rate was 67% and sputum-conversion among the bacillary cases was 57%. The study revealed that the treatment completion rate in the project area cases, who got home visits and remotivation in the event of a default in drug collection, was no better than that of non-project patients who merely got postal reminders. Treatment compliance rate was significantly better among those below 30 years of age and females when compared with older and male patients. Other study results were comparable to those obtained in a DTC TB clinic in urban conditions.