Background
Tuberculosis (Tb) is a chronic infectious disease that is preventable and curable, yet a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality. Tb prevalence are under-estimated in many high burden countries. Childhood Tb remain a pointer to a recent Tb infection in the environment; thus, lack adequate control unlike Tb infection in the adult population. The study aimed to determine the prevalence of childhood Tb at National Tb, Leprosy and Burulli Ulcer Training Center & Referral Hospital (NTBLTC) Zaria.
Methods
The prevalence of Tb was studied among children age 0-14 retrospectively using GeneXpert MTb/Rif diagnostic tool. A cross-sectional study design by reviewing data from January 2021 to December 2024 was used. The results were analyzed using SPSS version 2.0 and MedCal, with a P-value of less than 0.05 considered as significant.
Results
A prevalence of 4% Tb with 0.2% Drug Resistance Tuberculosis (DR-Tb) was recorded among a total studied population of 5,170. The outcome of the prevalence varied with sex, age, Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) status, residency and diagnostic positivity pattern, where residency & Age had a strong association with children developing Tb with a p-value of less than 0.05. The Female gender was more with positivity rate of 51.7%, and 1.3% Tb/HIV co-infection.
Conclusion
This study recorded a low prevalence of 4% among the study population when compared with World Health Organization (WHO) global Childhood Tb report of, 2022, 2023 & 2024 with 11%, 12% & 11% prevalence rate respectively.
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