The 1997 Nationwide Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey in the Philippines.

The 1997 Nationwide Tuberculosis (TB) Prevalence Survey in the Philippines aimed to determine TB prevalence as a basis for setting targets of the National Tuberculosis Control Program. A multi-stage cluster survey of a random sample of 21960 subjects from 36 clusters nationwide was conducted from April 2 to July 31 1997. Bacillus Calmette-Guerin scar verification and tuberculin testing was performed for subjects aged 2 months and over and chest radiography screening was done on subjects 10 years and older. Sputum samples were collected from individuals who were initially evaluated to have abnormal chest radiographs to determine the prevalence of bacillary TB. The presence of Mycobacterium TB was demonstrated by acid fast smear of modified Kinyouns technique and culture on Lowenstein Jensen. Results showed that the prevalence of active pulmonary TB was 42/1000 population. The prevalence of culture positive and smear positive cases was 8.1/1000 and 3.1/1000 respectively. The prevalence was similar in urban and rural areas. Comparing these results with the survey in 1981-83 the prevalence of active TB was unchanged. Morbidity from TB remains high. There was only a minimal decrease for smear positive cases (37%) and for culture positive cases (25%) in the 14-year interval.