The Prevalence of Tuberculosis among Addis Ababa City Bus Drivers and Cash Collectors

Tuberculosis control policies emphasize the importance of case finding and treatment, particularly ofSmear-positive cases aiming at a cure rate of 85%. This is a Cross-sectional survey which was mainlyaimed to estimate the magnitude of smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis among Addis Ababa City Busdrivers and cash collectors. The specific objectives were to determine the proportion of all forms oftuberculosis among the bus drivers and cash collectors; to determine the proportions of smear-negativeand extra-pulmonary TB cases, relapses, defaulters, and treatment failures among all types of theidentified TB cases; to determine the proportion of registered Smear-positive TB cases among all theidentified cases; and to look for trends in the magnitude of tuberculosis over the years. A total of 903 [466(51.6%) Addis Ababa City Bus drivers and 437 (48.4%) cash collectors] aged between 19 and 59 years(mean age = 35.6 years) were screened for tuberculosis. Six hundred and forty (70.9%) were males and263(29.1%) females. The study took place starting from December 28/2003 to March 15/2004. A pre-tested standardized questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic characteristics and clinicalinformation. All the study participants had a full physical examination and laboratory tests (sputum smearfor AFB, chest x-ray, and FNA) were ordered for all suspected TB cases as recommended by the NationalTuberculosis and Leprosy Control Guide line. EPI-INFO Version 6 and SPSS statistical packages wereused for data entry and analysis. There were 12(1328/100,000) existing cases of tuberculosis and4(442/100,000) newly diagnosed. The prevalence of Smear-positive pulmonary TB (PTB+) was4/903(443/100,000) (P >0.05). There was no significant difference with the proportion of smear-positivepulmonary TB cases in Wereda 16, Addis Ababa (189/100,000). The prevalence of all types oftuberculosis was 16/903(1772/100,000) (P< 0.05) as compared with the prevalence of notified cases inAddis Ababa in 2003(372/100,000). The proportion of Smear-negative pulmonary TB (PTB-) casesamong all types of tuberculosis was 8/16(50%) (P>0.05) and the proportion of extra-pulmonarytuberculosis (EPTB) 3/16(18.8%) (P> 0.05). In Addis Ababa the two proportions were 33.4% and 33.01%respectively. The proportion of relapse TB cases was 1/16(6.25%). There was no association between theprevalence of tuberculosis and the various socio-demographic characteristics. All the identified caseswere registered in health institutions where there were DOTS program (P<0.05). The trend of tuberculosiswas analyzed starting from 1989 G.C. to 2003/04 G.C. There was no increasing or decreasing trend for allforms of tuberculosis, Chi-square test for trend for PTB+, PTB-, and EPTB were 1.86, 1.26, and 0.0635respectively. Since our comparison group was not an appropriate one it was concluded that this study willhelp as a base line for future studies and it was recommended that further future studies will be required.