Regional success on screening and chemoprophylaxis in contacts of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Turkey: a dispensary experience in 2016-2017

Abstract

Background: Turkey has a national tuberculosis (TB) control program that follows the standards set by the World Health Organization's (WHO) global TB control program.

Methods: In this record-based retrospective study, contact screening and chemoprophylaxis of 469 TB contacts registered at the Samsun Tuberculosis Dispensary in 2016-2017 were assessed.

Results: On average, patients with pulmonary TB each had four contacts. Chemoprophylaxis was administered in 233 of the contacts for the following reasons: having close contact with an active TB patient (187 [80%]), being <15 y of age and tuberculin skin test (TST) positive (12 [5%]), detection of latent TB infection (27 [12%]) or not having been treated for TB before in conjunction with the discovery via radiography of a sequel lesion (7 [3%]). The remaining 236 contacts were not given chemoprophylaxis: 203 (86%) were TST negative, 10 (4%) rejected chemoprophylaxis and 23 (10%) refused to participate in an examination. Chemoprophylaxis was given to 30% of contacts in the first week and to 75% of contacts in the first month. The treatment completion rate was 80%, while the rate of chemoprophylaxis abandonment was 19.5% for males and 21.2% for females.

Conclusions: The Samsun TB dispensary is successfully implementing the WHO's End TB strategy and has achieved higher treatment completion rates than other countries.

Keywords: chemoprophylaxis; contact screening; dispensary; treatment completion; tuberculosis.