Objective To investigate awareness about tuberculosis (TB) prevention and treatment and influence of professional training on TB detection among health-care workers (HCWs) in general hospitals.Methods In total,750 HCWs were trained for TB-related knowledge for eight class-hours in a two-day course in three general hospitals,and 20 HCWs from each of the three hospitals classified as grade 3A and grade 2A in urban Beijing and grade B at suburban Beijing,respectively,were interviewed with questionnaire designed to understand their awareness about TB prevention policy,epidemiology,diagnosis and treatment,and to evaluate effectiveness of the training,respectively.All the trainees responded before and after the training,with a hundred percent of response rate.TB diagnosis and reporting one year before training in the three hospitals were compared to those one year after it.Results Scores of knowledge about TB diagnosis and treatment averaged 64-80 for HCWs before training,with statistically significant difference among three hospital (F = 5.984,P ＜ 0.01).Scores increased after training,but without significant difference from those before it (P ＞ 0.05).Awareness of TB prevention policy,regulations and epidemiology was insufficient in most HCWs of those hospitals,with lowest and highest average scores of 38.3 and 71.7 before training,respectively,but scores increased significantly after training (P ＜ 0.01).Proportion of TB diagnosis with chest roentgenograph at grades 3A and 2A hospitals was significantly higher one month,three months and six months after training,as compared to that at suburban hospitals (P ＜0.01).There was significant decrease (P ＜ 0.01) in proportion of chest roentgenograph at respiratory departments in hospitals grade 3A and grade 2A after training.There was no significant difference in reporting of pulmonary TB and positive sputum smear (P ＞ 0.05) before and after training.Conclusions HCWs in general hospitals had experience and capacity in diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary TB,but their knowledge of TB prevention policy and epidemiology was insufficient.Their ability in finding and reporting TB can not been improved with short-term training.