I.

Introduction Tuberculosis remains a significant threat to global health, contributing to a total of 1.77 million deaths in 2007, and corresponding to about 4,800 deaths a day. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are more than 14 million people living with TB. In the Philippines, TB is the 6 th leading cause of illness and the 6th leading cause of deaths among Filipinos in 2007. Most of the TB patients in the country belong to the economically productive age group (1554 years old). A high incidence of tuberculosis is seen among patients in mental institutions. Transmission rates of tuberculosis among the mentally-ill population can be as high as sixteen-times more than that of the general population, in addition to a greater risk of dissemination of multidrug-resistant forms of TB in hospitals. It is, therefore, imperative that prompt diagnosis of TB be executed in order to control and reduce the transmission of M. tuberculosis. However, it has been known that obtaining adequate sputum specimen for bacteriologic confirmation of the disease is rarely achieved due to patients aggressive or uncooperative behavior. Because of this, X-ray studies have become the primary means of detecting tuberculosis in patients with mental disorders. The National Tuberculosis Control program of the Department of Health upholds direct sputum smear examination as the primary diagnostic tool in NTP case finding. A diagnosis of tuberculosis cannot be made on the basis of other examinations, such as Chest X-ray results alone or PPD skin tests. Although preferred, the applicability of direct sputum smear examination to mentally-ill patients is questionable due to the aforementioned difficulties. This study aims to identify the percentage of patients in the National Center for Mental Health who is able to provide a viable sputum sample for the microbiologic diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Research Plan Investigator/s Research Question Among patients admitted in the Tuberculosis Pavilion of the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) for the period of June 2010-June 2011, diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) through Chest radiography, what is the success rate of sputum collection? Objectives General Objective: The general objective of this study is to determine the percentage of successful sputum collection among patients of the NCMH-TB Pavilion diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. Specific Objectives: i. To determine the percentage of patients in the TB pavilion, who can provide an adequate sample for sputum smear microscopy ii. To determine the prevalence of sputum smear positive patients in NCMH Study Design Study Population Cross-sectional/ Descriptive Study Patients admitted in the National Center for Mental Health who are: 1) 18-60 years old 2) Male or female 3) Diagnosed cases of pulmonary tuberculosis through chest Xray Seludo et.al.