Physicians' approach to the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis in Afyon, Turkey.

Objective: To evaluate physicians' approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis in Afyon, Turkey.

Material And Methods: A questionnaire on tuberculosis was filled out by 208 physicians (46 specialists and 162 general practitioners).

Results: Bacteriology was the preferred method of diagnosis among 75% (n = 156) of the physicians. For treatment of newly diagnosed tuberculosis, 64.4% prescribed a three-drug and 30.8% a four-drug combination. The combination most often selected was HRE (36.5%). Preferred treatment durations were 9 (38.5%) and 6 (34.6%) months. For patients with treatment failure, 20.2% of the physicians would add a new drug to the existing regimen, while 65.4% would refer the patient to a specialised tuberculosis unit. For the treatment of childhood tuberculosis, 38.5% of the physicians thought a two-drug treatment was adequate. For tuberculosis during pregnancy, 9.7% of the physicians offered treatment after the pregnancy, while 11.5% offered treatment after abortion.

Conclusion: The knowledge of the physicians about the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis was deemed insufficient. Additional educational resources for physicians may contribute to improvements in tuberculosis control.