Prevalence of tuberculosis among symptomatic individuals and the risk areas in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) has been one of the diseases that are of public health problem globally. Nigeria was one out of eight countries accounting for two-thirds of people who developed TB. Of the global gap in TB case detection and notification, Ondo State reportedly has a notification gap of almost 11,100 TB cases in the year 2019 out of which only 1,891 cases were detected. The research was carried out in the three geopolitical zones of Ondo State: North, South and Central. Ondo State has 18 LGAs and an area of 14,788.7 km² with a population of 3,460,877. Participants were recruited through outreaches for the selected communities in each of the zones. The only inclusion criterion for participation in the study was those have been coughing consistently for more than two weeks. The participants were screened for HIV seropositivity by standard protocols, while screening for TB was conducted by a combination Acid Fast Bacilli (AFB) microscopy and Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (Gene Xpert MTB/RIF®). Over 10,000 participants were screened, of which 3200 subjects were found having symptoms related to TB. 513 were HIV patients and 41% were TB positive. Overall TB prevalence was found to be 623(19.5%). Akure South LGA recorded the highest overall prevalence of 39.0%. In the North district, Owo LGA recorded the highest prevalence (18.0%) while the least prevalence of (3.5%) was obtained in Ose LGA. The males were more infected (26.5%) than the females (15.3%). According to age groups, age group above 55 recorded the highest prevalence of 26.8% while the least prevalence of 15.3% was obtained in the age group 16-25. Dry season recorded higher prevalence of TB than the rainy season. Patients with low microbial load recorded the highest percentage of 45% while those with low intensities recorded the lowest percentage. Ondo State, Nigeria, has a high prevalence of TB disease, therefore there is need to increase public awareness and monitoring of individuals resident in the State. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1037091