Abstract:
Tuberculosis is one of the widely occurring infectious diseases and it is the leading cause of
death in the Ethiopian Somali regional state including Dollo zone, Warder town. The objective
of this study was to determine the prevalence of pulmonary TB and its associated risk factors
among TB patients in Warder Hospital, Warder Town, Ethiopian Somali Regional State, A
retrospective study based on five years data of TB patients (2012-2016) was employed.
Purposeful sampling technique was used to select the study participants. A cross sectional
study was conducted among 422 TB suspected patients visiting Warder Hospital from October
- December 2016. Sputum sample were collected and examined following standard national
guideline for diagnosis of TB using direct Ziehl – Nelson staining techniques. Pretested
structured questionnaire was employed to collect data on associated risk factors for PTB. The
collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 and descriptive statistics and logistic
regression analysis were employed to identify risk factors associated with pulmonary
tuberculosis. A total of 1482 all forms of TB patients were registered during the last five years
(2012 to 2016) in Warder Hospital. Based on retrospective study, the number in PTB patients
were higher (74.1%) than that of EPTB (25.9%). Males and the productive age group were
highly affected in the study area. The prevalence of smear-positive PTB of the current study by
cross sectional was 9.7%. Factors significantly associated with smear-positive PTB were age,
marital status, having close contact history with TB patients chat chewing and smoking
cigarette. Overall, in this study, the high prevalence of smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis in the area suggested the need for strict intervention and intensification of health education to
prevent the spread of the disease and to create awareness on risk factors contributing to the
infection. Hence proper implementation of DOTS and a regular checkup of TB among TB
suspects is important to minimize the burden of the disease and to control the transmission
rate in the area.
