Clinical symptoms in pulmonary tuberculosis and relation with time delay in diagnosis and treatment in Kurdistan province

TB is a major problem worldwide and it is estimated one third of the world population are already infected and each year 9 million people develop full blown tuberculosis of these 3 million die of the disease, annually. Delay in diagnosis and treatment are major problems that play a significant role in all aspect of the disease from patient treatment to transmission in the community. The aim of this study was to investigate clinical symptoms and to find out are related to the delay in diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in Kurdistan province. All new cases of smear positive TB occurring in Kurdistan province during the year of 2009 was included in thisstudy. Data on the different variables were abstracted from the patients’ file and entered into the computer. For each patient demographic data, clinical data including symptoms and the time of onset of symptoms as well as the time receiving different services were collected. Descriptive and analytical analyses were done using SPSS software. Analysis were done using ANOVA and t test. In all analytical analysis, a p-value of less than 0. 05 was considered as criteria for statistical significance. The mean ± standard deviation of patient, treatment, diagnosis, and total delay were 45. 6 ± 36. 5, 16. 8 ± 22. 2, 1. 7 ± 0. 9, and 64. 2 ± 46. 2, respectively. There was positive correlation between patient and diagnosis delay with total delay. Most clinical symptoms were cough، dyspnea, loss of appetite, loss of weight, sweetness, fatigu, fever, and hemoptesia and chest pain. As the number of clinical symptoms increased the total delay decreased. Our findings indicate that there is a delay in all aspect of TB in the studied population. These delays need to be addressed both at the service giver level as well as patient level. There are urgent needs of proper intervention to reduce all delays in the studied population.