National Tuberculosis Programme, Disease Control Department, Ghana Health Services P.O. Box KB 493, Accra, Ghana.
Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 2012 Aug;106(8):511-3. doi: 10.1016/j.trstmh.2012.05.002. Epub 2012 May 30.
Sputum smear-positive TB patients, diagnosed in the laboratory, who never start anti-TB treatment are classified as 'initial defaulters'. In Ridge Hospital, Accra, Ghana, there were 84 laboratory confirmed TB cases in 2009, of whom 32 (38%) were initial defaulters. Cure and default rates based on this cohort were 54% and 43% respectively, compared with rates of 87% and 8% when using the cohort based on 52 patients registered for treatment. This study highlights the problem of initial defaulters, and shows that programme performance may be poor when patients in laboratory registers are used as the cohort to evaluate treatment outcomes.
实验室确诊、从未开始抗结核治疗的痰涂片阳性结核患者被归类为“初始失访者”。在加纳阿克拉的 Ridge 医院，2009 年共有 84 例实验室确诊的结核病例，其中 32 例（38%）为初始失访者。该队列的治愈率和失访率分别为 54%和 43%，而基于 52 名登记治疗患者的队列的治愈率和失访率分别为 87%和 8%。本研究强调了初始失访者的问题，并表明当使用实验室登记患者作为队列评估治疗结果时，方案的实施情况可能较差。
