Are Shopkeepers Suffering from Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Bahir Dar City, Northwest Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

Background Despite several interventions, tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a major public health concern in developing countries. Objective To determine pulmonary TB prevalence and associated factors among shopkeepers in Bahir Dar City, Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016 among 520 shopkeepers who had TB signs and symptoms using questionnaire interview and sputum samples processing. Shopkeepers were considered TB positive if two sputum slides became positive. Data were edited and analyzed using SPSS version 23. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors. Results A total of 520 shopkeepers were interviewed and gave sputum samples. About 256 (49.2%) of them were under the ≤30 years' age category, 22.0% can read and write, 65.0% were Muslims, and 32.0% originated from rural areas. Pulmonary TB prevalence was 7.0% (37/520), and positivity proportion was 57.0% (21/37) in males and 70.0% (26/37) in urban residents. Smaller (44.0%) shopkeepers got health education on TB. Illiteracy, no health education, contact history, cigarette smoking, nonventilated shops, and comorbidities were factors to TB infection (p value < 0.05). Conclusions Significant numbers of shopkeepers were infected by TB. Factors to TB infection were either personal or related to comorbidities or the environment. Therefore, TB officials need to specially emphasize awareness creation, occupational health, and early screening to prevent TB.

Tuberculosis infectious pool and associated factors in East Gojjam Zone, Northwest Ethiopia

“…The same findings were reported by the previous studies from Ethiopia [14, 15]. Possibly, it could be linked to the route of TB transmission/air droplets/in which the most dangerous sources of TB infection are untreated smear-positive TB cases (detected and undetected) [6, 7, 12, 14]. In addition, these three TB categories were larger in the proportion which has a great role in affecting the magnitude of TB infectious pool.…”

“…This indicates that there is TB service delay (patient, and/or facility) [35, 36], the TB control program has not covered the community with potential TB suspects, and there is a need either to strictly adhere with or revise the existing TB control strategy. It might be happening due to geographic inaccessibility of TB services [7, 37], poor facility readiness and service quality [12, 24, 25, 38–40], low community awareness [6, 7, 9] infrastructure problems [7, 37, 38], and poor TB program support. Besides the study period, all the above variables might also be reasons for the variations of TB management time between this and the former studies.…”

“…Similarly, recent evidence indicated that TB is a primary public health agenda in Ethiopia with varying prevalence across regions and districts [5–10]. The emergence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) [11–13], limited diagnostics [6–8, 10, 12], low TB case detection and monitoring [14, 15], poor data quality [6, 14, 15], high prevalence of comorbidities [10, 16–19], poor socioeconomic status [19–21], personal behavior [6, 22], and poor service quality [2, 23–26] are challenges of TB control programs. These may contribute to increased TB incidence and lengthy infectious period, which ultimately results in disease complications and high TB transmission [7, 14, 15, 27, 28].…”

<p>Geographic Accessibility, Readiness, and Barriers of Health Facilities to Offer Tuberculosis Services in East Gojjam Zone, Ethiopia: A Convergent Parallel Design</p>

“…1,[9][10][11][12] Similarly, TB is one of the top leading diseases claiming millions of lives in Ethiopia with varying magnitude across its regions. 13 Based on a recent data, the TB incidence in Ethiopia is estimated at 80 -172/100,000 population, 1,14,15 .About 60,000 TB cases are not yet detected in the country, 15,16 and the national TB case notificateion rate and treatment success rate were reported to be 56% and 84%, respectively. 17,18 The low TB case notification rate may be linked to use of poor TB incidence estimation methods, 16,19 relying only on passive case detection approach to identify TB cases, 8,20,21 lack of adequate TB dignostic tools, 8,20,22 poor service availability and readiness, 8,21,23 high patient and facility delay, [24][25][26] and poor community awareness about TB .…”

“…17,18 The low TB case notification rate may be linked to use of poor TB incidence estimation methods, 16,19 relying only on passive case detection approach to identify TB cases, 8,20,21 lack of adequate TB dignostic tools, 8,20,22 poor service availability and readiness, 8,21,23 high patient and facility delay, [24][25][26] and poor community awareness about TB . 14,18,27,28 The burdens of TB could be preventable under effective preventive strategies, early diagnosis and appropriate treatment. 18 However, this could be possible if health facilities are easily accessible and ready to offer TB services.…”