Study of Prevalence of Tuberculosis Disease in the North Indian Subcontinent Kashmir Valley: A Cross-sectional Hospital-based Study

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs. TB is one of the biggest public health challenges in the world especially in under-developing and developing countries.

Aim: To determine the prevalence of TB in the Kashmir valley.

Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Chest Medicine, Chest Diseases Hospital (CDH), Government Medical College, Srinagar and Intermediate Reference Laboratory (IRL), State TB Training and Demonstration Centre (STDC), CDH, Srinagar and in association with State TB Office (STO) Kashmir, India, from March 2019 to December 2020 in 10 districts. A total of 66,829 presumptive TB samples in 2019 inclusive of 450 samples of CDH and 63532 presumptive TB samples in 2020 inclusive of 400 samples of CDH were collected from Department of Chest Medicine, CDH, Government Medical College, Srinagar and Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) Centres of Kashmir valley under State TB office Director Health Kashmir as per World Health Organisation (WHO) criteria. It included both the positive and negative cases of TB registered during the year 2019 and 2020.

Results: The total prevalence of TB disease during the year 2019 was found to be 49.03 per 100,000 population and 37.31 per 100,000 population in the year 2020 respectively. There was no correlation among the surveyed demographics in the positive TB cases in the Kashmir valley (p>0.05). Srinagar city reported highest cases whereas Budgam and Pulwama reported least cases in the year 2019 and 2020.

Conclusion: The respiratory precautionary measures like social distancing and use of face masks during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has reduced transmission and incidence of TB. Proper identification and treatment of infectious cases will prevent TB in the ethnic population. More studies are needed on large sample size.