| Abstract: | The standard treatment for tuberculosis (TB) is the key to its control. Here, we report on the statistics of treatment status and the duration of hospitalization/treatment. The place of initial treatment was observed among newly notified TB patients (n = 24,170) in 2009. The proportion receiving treatment in hospital was highest (91.8%) in sputum smear-positive pulmonary TB patients (n = 9,675) including 2.3% hospitalized mainly due to other diseases. The proportion receiving treatment in hospital was the least (25.1%) among bacteriologically negative pulmonary TB cases, including 10.4 % hospitalized mainly due to other diseases. Among sputum smear-positive pulmonary TB cases the proportion of patients receiving treatment in hospital did not differ with age, but among bacteriologically negative pulmonary TB cases, this proportion differed markedly according to age group (e.g., 7.7% of those in their 20s, 24.4% of those in their 50s and 48.8% of those in their 80s). The duration of hospitalization for TB treatment among newly notified cases in 2008 was observed. The median hospitalization periods were 73 days, 78 days, 45 days, 36 days and 46 days, among new sputum smear-positive pulmonary TB cases, retreatment sputum smear-positive pulmonary TB cases, other bacillus-positive pulmonary TB cases, bacilli-negative pulmonary TB cases and extra-pulmonary TB cases, respectively. The duration of TB treatment among newly notified cases in 2008 was observed at the end of 2009. The median treatment duration among all forms of TB was 272 days. The longest median treatment duration was 286 days for retreatment of sputum smear-positive pulmonary TB cases and the shortest was 198 days for bacteriologically negative pulmonary TB cases. |
