Table 2.
Comparison of TB treatment outcomes during the pre- and intra-COVID-19 periods.
| Characteristics | Notified TB Cases (N = 1208) |
Pre-COVID-19 (April–June 2019) (N = 613) |
Intra-COVID-19 (April–June 2020) (N = 595) |
p-Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | ||||
| Male | 756 (62.6) | 388 (63.3) | 368 (61.8) | 0.603 |
| Female | 452 (37.4) | 225 (36.7) | 227 (38.2) | |
| Age, years | ||||
| ≤24 | 300 (24.8) | 151 (24.6) | 149 (25.0) | 0.544 |
| 25–34 | 346 (28.6) | 186 (30.3) | 160 (26.9) | |
| 35–44 | 255 (21.1) | 131 (21.4) | 124 (20.8) | |
| 45–54 | 174 (14.4) | 80 (13.1) | 94 (15.8) | |
| ≥55 | 133 (11.0) | 65 (10.6) | 68 (11.4) | |
| Patient type | ||||
| Newly diagnosed | 1069 (88.5) | 551 (89.9) | 518 (87.1) | 0.124 |
| Relapsed | 139 (11.5) | 62 (10.1) | 77 (12.9) | |
| Type of tuberculosis | ||||
| Pulmonary | 1152 (95.4) | 584 (95.3) | 568 (95.5) | 0.873 |
| Extrapulmonary | 56 (4.6) | 29 (4.7) | 27 (4.5) | |
| Mode of diagnosis | ||||
| Laboratory confirmed | 720 (59.6) | 341 (55.6) | 379 (63.7) | 0.004 |
| Clinical diagnosis | 488 (40.4) | 272 (44.4) | 216 (36.3) | |
| HIV status | ||||
| Positive | 425 (35.2) | 206 (33.6) | 219 (36.8) | 0.399 |
| Negative | 752 (62.3) | 389 (63.5) | 363 (61.0) | |
| Unknown | 31 (2.6) | 18 (2.9) | 13 (2.2) | |
| Treatment method | ||||
| Directly Observed Therapy | 849 (70.3) | 613 (100) | 236 (39.7) | <0.001 |
| Monthly dispensing for self-administration |
359 (29.7) | - | 359 (29.7) | |
| WHO treatment outcomes | ||||
| Cured | 384 (31.8) | 176 (28.7) | 208 (35.0) | <0.001 |
| Completed | 233 (19.3) | 110 (17.9) | 123 (20.7) | |
| Lost to follow up | 227 (18.8) | 130 (21.3) | 97 (16.3) | |
| Transferred/not evaluated) | 193 (16.0) | 83 (13.5) | 110 (18.5) | |
| Failed treatment | 9 (0.7) | 5 (0.8) | 4 (0.7) | |
| Died | 162 (13.4) | 109 (17.8) | 53 (8.9) | |
| Treatment success * | ||||
| Yes | 617 (51.1) | 286 (46.7) | 331 (55.6) | 0.002 |
| No | 591 (48.9) | 327 (53.3) | 264 (44.4) |
* Treatment success was defined as the sum of WHO treatment outcomes of cure and completed, whereas the sum of patients who were lost to follow up, transferred, experienced treatment failure and died was classified as not having achieved treatment success.