Evaluation of prescription behavior of tuberculosis patients in comparison with WHO guidelines

Abstract

The present study was designed to evaluate the prescribing trend among the tuberculosis (TB) patients in different hospitals of Pakistan. In this study under directly observed therapy (DOT) programme, 38 patients including adults and children of both sexs who admitted suffering with either pulmonary or extra pulmonary TB, were selected. The majority of the patients were from rural areas (64 %) and the rest of patients from urban cities. The selected patients included both of initial phase (39 %) and continuation phase (61 %) and were receiving once daily dosing of rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol combination (RHZE), and ethambutol and isoniazid (EH), respectively. Two patients (5 %) were of category 2 (relapsed patients) while thirty six patients (95 %) were of category 1 (new cases). Family history, medication errors, and prescribing trends were observed and compared the treatment plan with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Pakistan Chest Society (PCS) guidelines. It was observed that WHO and PCS guidelines were followed in the hospitals and all the prescription trend was found rationale with no drug-drug interaction but yet the treatment period was more than 6 months due to poor patient compliance to the anti tuberculosis medication and ineffective DOT program in Pakistan.