A STUDY OF KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS REGARDING PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS IN PATIENTS UNDER TREATMENT FOR TUBERCULOSIS IN A RURAL AREA OF ALIGARH – UP

Background: Pulmonary tuberculosis continues to be a major public health problem and account for over 80% of all cases. It is considered to a major source of spread. Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme depends on passive reporting of the chest symptomatic to the health institution. Therefore, it is important that the basic knowledge about the disease and the availability of free treatment is clear among the individual in the community. Methodology and Results: A cross sectional study was carried out among 88 patient suffering from Pulmonary Tuberculosis and receiving treatment from Rural Health Training Centre, Jawan, J N Medical College. Majority of the patient 80.7% were aware of symptoms of tuberculosis. As many as 96.6% of patient were aware that tuberculosis could be transmitted from one person to another. As regard the etiology of disease, 47.7% were aware of correct etiology i.e. infective organism, 37% of patients were aware of investigations carried out for tuberculosis and 9.1% of patients were aware about BCG vaccination as mode of prevention for tuberculosis. Majority of the patient 95.5% believed that tuberculosis is curable and (6 – 9 month) duration was correctly known to only 32.9% of patient. Conclusion: The cross sectional study revealed that although knowledge regarding symptoms, mode of transmission, etiology was satisfactory; however there is still a great need to educate females and illiterate individuals on priority basis. Misconceptions like food and utensils as mode of transmission need to be removed. The mass media and IEC should actively continue giving message about importance of BCG vaccination and other vaccine preventable diseases