Prevalence of diabetes type-2 & pulmonary tuberculosis among Filipino and treatment outcomes: A surveillance study in the Eastern Saudi Arabia.

Objective: To study prevalence of diabetes type-2 and pulmonary tuberculosis among Filipino patients and treatment out comes. Tuberculosis centre of Dammam medical complex (MOH) is a referral centre for the Eastern Saudi Arabia where patients from all government and private hospitals having open pulmonary tuberculosis are admitted for isolation till they are rendered noninfectious. All patients are treated for 6 months under DOTS strategy with 4 drugs (2HRZE) for 2 months as initial intensive phase and 2 drugs (HR) for 4 months as continuation phase.

Methods And Materials: We retrospectively reviewed clinical records of 1388 patients admitted with open pulmonary tuberculosis between Jan- 2003 and June-2010.

Results: Among 1388 patients, 39% (n=542) were Saudis and 61% (n=846) were non-Saudis. Among these 12.39% (n=172) were Filipinos,153 males and 19 females respectively. Out of 1388 patients, 114 (7.17%) were found to have diabetes type-2. Among these diabetics, majority n=91 (79.82%) were Filipinos. Sputum conversion was late in diabetic patients resulting in relatively longer hospital stay compared to fellow patients having only tuberculosis.

Conclusion: Our study has shown that one possible risk factor for tuberculosis is diabetes. Majority of TB patients having diabetes type-2, n=91 (79.82%) were Filipinos. Their sputum conversion was relatively late and their hospital stay was longer than their fellow patients having only tuberculosis. Our findings are in agreement with the current literature on the correlation of diabetes and tuberculosis.