Rahmani Mth, Saeed M, Hussain S, Rasheed F, Ahmad R, Bhatti Za.
Emergence of tuberculosis infection: a serious threat to the nation’s health.
Biomedica Jan ;32(2):93-6.

Background and Objective: In spite of major steps taken to switch Tuberculosis (TB), the frequency has climbed drastically. The lack of intervention health sector policies, there will be possibility of worse conditions in the near future. The present study was designed to evaluate the frequency of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection in pulmonary and extra pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) suspects attending Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, in year 2015 for the diagnosis and screening. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted at pathology department of Allama Iqbal Medical College and Jinnah Hospital Lahore (AIMC & JHL) from January 2015 to December 2015. This study co-mprised of a total of 993 TB suspects (pulmonary and extra pulmonary) between the ages of 15 to 60 yea-rs. New TB suspects were included and previously diagnosed TB cases were excluded from our study. All PTB and EPTB specimens were processed on real time PCR based GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay for the detection of MTB. Results: Out of total 993 cases, 29% (289/993) cases showed presence of MTB in their samples. The rate of MTB infection in females was high 30.93% (176/569) as compared to male patients 26.65% (113/424). MTB infection at different ages showed high frequency 31.31% (119/380) among age group of 31 – 40 years, and least frequency 20.00% (16/80) was found among age group of 20 – 30 years. Out of 800 (80.56%) PTB cases, 254 (31.39%) were positive for MTB and out of 193 (19.43%) EPTB suspects 35 (18.13%) were diagnosed as MTB positive by GeneXpert assay. Conclusion: In high burden TB region of the world, there is need to strengthen rapid TB diagnostic facilities. Utility of GeneXpert assay has provided an excellent opportunity for rapid diagnosis of TB.

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