Descriptive Analysis of Tuberculosis Surveillance Data in the Bantama Sub Metropolis, Kumasi, Ghana - 2016-2020

<i>Introduction</i>: Tuberculosis (TB) is an ancient bacterial disease characterized by coughs, fever and other symptoms. Globally, the disease affected about 10 million people in 2019, with about 1.4 million dying. It is transmitted through air and, mainly affects the lungs. Ghana recorded 44,000 cases in 2019 with 15,000 deaths. This study analyzed the cases registered from 2016-2020 in the Bantama Sub-metropolis, Kumasi by person, place and time and treatment outcomes. <i>Methods</i>: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used. A case was defined as any person registered for treatment, irrespective of diagnostic method. Secondary data was obtained manually from the TB register and entered into an excel sheet and analyzed descriptively using pivot table. ArcGIS version 13 was used to produce a map. Stata version 14 was used for multivariate analysis. Results were presented in tables and chart showing rates and frequencies. <i>Results</i>: A total of 537 TB cases, aged between 5 and 82 years, were recorded from 2016 to 2020. About 67.4% (362/537) were males. The cases detected per year were 121, 123, 98, 126, and 69 from 2016-2020 respectively. Less than 1% (0.74%, 4/537) were less than 15 years. The mean age was 42.2 (SD±15.1). Up to 36.3% (195/537) of the cases resided in the Kumasi Metropolis. Treatment success decreased from 81.8% (99/121) in 2016 to 72.5% (50/69) in 2020. Treatment success for 2018 was 93.9%, whiles the rest of the years fell below the 90% target. Case fatality rate among females was 15.6% (27/175) and 11.6% (42/362) among males. Also, mortality among cases resident in Kumasi was 11.3% (22/195) compared to 13.7% (47/342) among those outside Kumasi. Treatment success among cases without HIV co-infection (93%) was higher than those with co-infection (63%), p-value 0.001, CI. <i>Conclusions</i>: TB case detection in Bantama was stable from 2016 to 2019 but dipped in 2020. Majority of the cases were males. About two-thirds of the cases registered resided outside Kumasi. The treatment success rate was lower than the 90% target, except for 2018. Case fatality rates were higher among females, cases residing outside Kumasi and smear negative case. Regular home visits should be intensified by Community Health Officers to improve treatment success. HIV co-infection could negatively affect treatment outcomes.