• Suman Thapa, Anupam Bista, Prashant Subedi, Aaradhana Adhikari, and Sunil Pokharel.
• Department of Medicine, Patan Hospital, Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Lalitpur, Nepal.
• JNMA J Nepal Med Assoc. 2021 Jul 1; 59 (238): 531-536.

IntroductionTuberculosis has high burden in developing countries like Nepal. This study aims to determine the prevalence of tuberculosis among patients admitted in the department of medicine of a tertiary hospital.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional study of all the patients admitted to the tertiary care hospital from 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2019 was done. Ethical approval was obtained from Institutional Review Committee (Ref: drs2006181387). Convenience sampling method was used. A descriptive analysis of demographic, clinical and laboratory profile of patients was made using Microsoft Excel version 2016. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data.ResultsAmong 6829 patients admitted to the department of medicine, 209 (3.06%) (2.65-3.47 at 95% CI) patients were diagnosed with tuberculosis. Among them, 147 (70.33%) were males and the mean age was 49.77 years. Pulmonary and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis were present in 153 (73.20%) and 56 (26.79%) patients, respectively. Bacteriological confirmation was limited to 107 (70%) of pulmonary tuberculosis and 3 (5%) of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Fever was the commonest presentation in 166 (79.42%) followed by cough in 164 (78.46%), anorexia in 108 (51.67%), weight loss 104 (49.76%), and others.ConclusionsThe study showed that the prevalence of tuberculosis among admitted patients was higher than national prevalence.

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