FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR DELAYS IN SEEKING DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL OF DEHRADUN– A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease, in which Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the causative agent. When a person progresses from infection to disease, they may not experience obvious symptoms for a long time, (e.g cough, fever, hemoptysis, weight loss etc). This might lead to delay in diagnosis and treatment seeking. One of the components of timely diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis is estimating the delay in diagnosis of TB and assessing the factors contributing to the delay. To Aim and Objectives: describe the delays in the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary Tuberculosis and to study the socio demographic determinants responsible for the same. A time bound institution based study was conducted in a tertiary care Methodology: hospital in department of pulmonary medicine. A total of 50 patients were included in the study by means of total enumeration. diagnosti Result: c and consultation delays were the most common cause of delays in seeking diagnosis and treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis.