Abstract:
Background
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by different species of mycobacteria. In
2006, among all the countries reporting to WHO,199 countries notified 5.1 million new
and relapse cases, 2.4 million (47%) were new smear-positive cases. Annual review of
the districts shows that the 75% case detection rate target for the year 2014, Tano-North
obtained 40%, Sunyani Municipal 54% and Sunyani-West 47% rate. This study was
therefore undertaken to determine the factors affecting case detection of tuberculosis in
the Sunyani Municipal, Sunyani-West and Tano-North districts of Brong-Ahafo Region
of Ghana.
Methodology
This was a descriptive cross sectional study conducted among 80 tuberculosis patients. A
structured questionnaire was used for the data collection. The data collected were entered
in Microsoft Excel and imported into STAT A version 13 for analysis. Descriptive
statistics were conducted and Pearson's Chi square statistical test was employed to
determine the association between the dependent variable and the independent variables.
Results: out of the total of 80 respondents interviewed, 81.7% said TB is a disease.
Majority (65.0%) of respondents know symptoms of TB (cough, fever, loss of appetite
and tiredness), 92.5% of the patients interviewed spent 30 minutes at the facility, 1.20%
of people diagnosed within two weeks, 91.2% of respondents stayed home one or more
months after the start of signs and symptoms before seeking care.
People sought health using non-orthodox facilities resulting in delays in reporting to
biomedical facility.
Conclusion: based on findings, case detection was being hampered by health seeking
behavior as patients had several encounters with the biomedical health system before
being diagnosed, hence it is concluded that screening for TB at health facilities were
affecting case detection.
