Comparison of Early and Late Tuberculosis Deaths in Korea.

Author: Jaehee LEE ¹ ; Hyun Woo NAM ; Sun Ha CHOI ; Seung Soo YOO ; Shin Yup LEE ; Seung Ick CHA ; Jae Yong PARK ; Chang Ho KIM
Author Information

1. Department of Internal Medicine, Kyungpook National University, School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea. kimch@knu.ac.kr
Publication Type:Brief Communication
Keywords: Tuberculosis; Early Deaths; Late Deaths; Drug Susceptibility Test
From:Journal of Korean Medical Science 2017;32(4):700-703
CountryRepublic of Korea
Language:English
Abstract: The cause of death in patients with tuberculosis (TB) may differ according to the phase of anti-tuberculosis treatment. However, there are limited data regarding this issue in Korea. We compared the cause of death of TB patients who died during the early intensive and late continuation phase of treatment. Twenty (56%) of the 36 early deaths were due to TB-related causes, whereas 34 (89%) of the 38 late deaths were due to TB-unrelated causes. This finding suggests that TB-related early deaths mainly attributable to delayed diagnosis should be improved to further reduce the overall TB deaths.