Impact of newer initiatives on treatment compliance and outcome in tuberculosis patients of rural Delhi and rural Ghaziabad – a comparative study

Background: India has the highest burden of Tuberculosis in the world, having about one-fourth of the total global incident cases of the disease in 2017. The RNTCP program started many newer initiatives in 2015 to improve compliance and treatment outcomes, reduce the incidence of resistance and control the TB-HIV co-infection. Objectives: To assess the improvement in patient compliance, to find out and compare the improvement in nutritional status of the patients after initiation of treatment and Direct Benefit Transfer and to compare the treatment outcomes of the enrolled subjects in the two areas. Material and Method: Data was collected from the DOTS centers under CHC, Muradnagar and TB and Chest Hospital Karawal Nagar, between January 2019 to September 2019. Details of the enrolled patients were taken from the centers and these patients were contacted individually. Of the registered patients, 59 patients from Muradnagar, Ghaziabad and 70 from Karawal Nagar, Delhi had completed treatment at the time of data collection and they were further evaluated for different parameters. Results: 62% of the registered patients at DOTS centre, Muradnagar, had completed treatment, 35.1% were cured, 1.7% died during treatment while only 1.2% of the patients did not show good compliance. 54% of the registered patients at DOTS centre of Karawalnagar, East Delhi, had completed treatment, 25.5% were cured, 2.7% of the patients had died during treatment while only 2.7% of the total patients did not show good compliance. More number of patients registered at Ghaziabad had either completed the treatment or were cured (97.1%) as compared to Delhi (79.5%). The mean gain in weight was 5.39 kg and 5.04 kg for Ghaziabad and Delhi respectively. This gain in weight had no relationship with Direct Benefit Transfer.