THE TRENDS OF TUBERCULOSIS IN CHILDREN AGED 1- 12 YEARS AND ITS MANAGEMENT FROM 2011 TO 2015 AT ARTHUR DAVISON CHILDRENS HOSPITAL IN NDOLA: Retrospective study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Tuberculosis is a widespread and in many cases a fatal, infectious disease caused by many strains of mycobacterium complex usually mycobacterium tuberculosis. It can affect any part of the body but mainly the lungs hence called pulmonary tuberculosis. Tuberculosis in children has been less of a public health priority in the recent years despite the fact that TB has been a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality worldwide with difficulties in diagnosis. Data on trends of childhood TB is rarely in published literature hence need for this research which will help in publishing OBJECTIVE To establish the trends in TB among children aged 1-12 years and its management over a period of five years from 2011- 2015 at Arthur Davison children’s hospital in Ndola and also to determine the proportion of TB in these children and to establish the age group most affected by TB over the period of five years and lastly to assess the proportion of TB and HIV as a co-morbidity METHODS The study reviewed all records that were registered in the MOH TB register at ADH from 2011 to 2015 coming up with a total number of 483 TB records and these records had satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data capturing tool was used to collect the data. RESULTS : This study determined the trends of TB in children aged 1 to 12 over the five years period from a total of 483 reviewed paediatric TB cases , its proportion in these children, the age range most affected by TB and lastly assessed TB and HIV as a co-morbidity at Arthur Davison Children’s hospital. It revealed that the trends were decreasing and that out of 483 TB patient, the majority 157(32.5%) of the TB patients were seen in the year 2011, followed by 129(26.7%), 84(17.4%), 57(11.8%) and 56(11.6%) representing the year 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. Findings on the age range most affected are that the majority 282(58.4%) of the TB patients were aged (5-12) years old while 201(41.6%) were aged between (1-5) years old. Therefore, the age range most affected by TB was between (5-12) years. The TB proportion results showed that Out of 483, the majority 467(96.7%) of the TB patient type were newly diagnosed, followed by 13(2.7%), 2(.4%) and the rest 1(.2%) that were Relapse, Trans-in and Treatment resumed respectively. And that many 467(96.7%) of TB condition types were PTB while 16(3.3%) were EPTB. Furthermore, the majority of 463(95.9%) were diagnosed by X-ray while 20(4.1%) were diagnosed by smear microscopy. And lastly In terms of HIV as a co-morbidity, the majority 175(36.2%) of the TB patients were HIV positive, followed by 173(35.8%) that were HIV negative while the rest 135(28%) of the TB patients were not tested for HIV CONCLUSIONS This study reports that the trends of TB in children aged 1-12 years have been decreasing from 2015 to 2011 .And the age range most affected was found to have been 5-12 years and the proportion of TB cases were mostly newly diagnosed and the diagnosis was made by use x-ray and lastly the large proportion of TB patients had tested positive for HIV as a co-morbidity. Therefore efforts should be made to sustain this decreasing trend of childhood TB.