An Evaluation of Treatment Outcomes in a Cohort of Clients on the DOTS Strategy, 2012–2016

Table 1

Recommended DOTS treatment regimen for each category of tuberculosis in Ghana.

Patient category	Definition	Initial phase treatment	Continuation phase treatment
		Daily (28 doses/month)	Daily (28 doses/month)
	All new cases
I	(i) New smear-positive	2 (HRZE)^2 = 56 doses of HRZE	4 (HR) = 112 doses of HR
	(ii) New smear-negative PTB
	(iii) Concomitant HIV disease
	(iv) Extrapulmonary TB
	Previously treated sputum smear-positive PTB
II	(i) Relapse	2 (HRZE)S + 1 (HRZE) = 84 doses of HRZE + 56 doses of S	5 (HRE) = 140 doses of HRE
	(ii) Treatment after interruption
	(iii) Treatment failure
III^3	Children below 12 years	2 (HRZ) = 56 doses of HRZ	4 (HR) = 112 doses of HR

Table 1 is adopted from the National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP) Training Manual, 2012. ¹Direct observation of treatment intake is required and always in regimens including rifampicin. ²Streptomycin may be used instead of ethambutol. In meningitis, ethambutol should be replaced by streptomycin. ³In children with meningitis, add streptomycin in the initial phase. Category I: new clients; category II: previously treated clients; category III: children < 12 years. TB drugs and codes: H: isoniazid; R: rifampicin; Z: pyrazinamide; S: streptomycin; E: ethambutol. Codes for Fixed Drug Combinations (FDC): (HR): isoniazid + rifampicin; (HRZ): isoniazid + rifampicin + pyrazinamide; (HRZE): isoniazid + rifampicin + pyrazinamide + ethambutol. The administration of these drugs has been expansively explained in the 2012 edition of the NTP Training Manual.