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Tuberculosis Unseen - Missed Opportunities in Diagnosis

Description

Historically, patients with TB have often been diagnosed late or after death. This delay in diagnosis often occurs because TB is misdiagnosed as an alternative respiratory illness (RI), such as pneumonia . TB infected patients that are not correctly diagnosed when initial symptoms occur may spread infection to others in both healthcare settings and the community.

Objective

To estimate the potential number of Tuberculosis (TB) cases that occur in inpatient and emergency department settings that are missed, diagnosed as something else, go untreated and return to the community, prior to receiving a correct diagnosis of TB. We analyze inpatient and emergency department records from the state of California from 2005-2011.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on