Abstract

This study was planned in order to evaluate the approaches of the physicians in Afyon and its disticts to the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. Study group consisted of 208 physicians with 46 specialists and 162 general practitioners. Data were obtained by a self administered questionnaire. 75% (n=156) of the physicans preferred to make the diagnosis by bacteriology, 64.4% choosed three drug combination and 30.8% preferred four drug combination for the therapy of newly diagnosed tuberculosis. The most selected combination was INH, RIF, EMB (36.5%). Preferred therapy durations were 9 (38.5%) and 6 (34.6%) months. For the patients with treatment failure, 20.2% of the physicians decided to add a new drug to regimen while 65.4% of them referred the patient to the specialised units of tuberculosis. In childhood tuberculosis, 38.5% of the physicans thought that two drug treatment is enough. On the other hand, in cases of tuberculosis during pregnancy, 9.7% of the physicians offer the treatment after completion of pregnancy while 11.5% offer after abortion. In conclusion, the knowledge of the physicians about the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis was found to be insufficient so we think that education of tuberculosis should be more effective.