Tuberculosis prevalence and rifampicin resistance among presumptive patients in Nasarawa State: A three-year retrospective study

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the prevalence and rifampicin resistance of tuberculosis among presumptive patients in Nasarawa state, Nigeria. Methods: Patient data collected from January 2019 to December 2021 were retrospectively computed from the register at the tuberculosis laboratory of Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia. A total of 91 884 patient records were analyzed to determine tuberculosis prevalence, rifampicin resistance, and patients' characteristics using Chi-squared test. Results: An overall prevalence of 8.0% was recorded among presumptive patients over the three-year period with a decreasing trend in prevalence from 10.0% (2019) to 6.5% (2021), though the number of samples progressively increased each year and more than doubled in 2021. Most of the patients tested for tuberculosis were females (52.6%) and were mostly older than 15 years (84.1%). Conversely, a higher resistance to rifampicin was observed among tuberculosis positive male patients (55.6%) than in females (44.4%). Similarly, tuberculosis positive patients older than 15 years (84.6%) showed greater resistance to rifampicin than those younger than 15 years (15.4%). Statistically, no relationship was established among age, sex, year of sampling and tuberculosis prevalence or rifampicin resistance rate. Conclusions: Despite the downward trends in tuberculosis prevalence and rifampicin resistance rate observed in this study, measures at maintaining the gains achieved in the fight against tuberculosis must remain paramount as the race towards reducing tuberculosis incidence and mortality by 2025 continues.