Gaps in tuberculosis care in West Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea

SETTING: Papua New Guinea (PNG), a low-resource country with a high tuberculosis (TB) burden. OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics, treatment outcomes and risk factors for unfavourable outcomes among patients registered for first-line tuberculosis (TB) treatment between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2016 in West Sepik Province. DESIGN: This was a retrospective cohort study of routinely collected programme data. RESULTS: = 0.027). CONCLUSION: This study identified substantial gaps in TB care, including low rates of bacteriological diagnosis and HIV testing, and high rates of loss to follow-up, highlighting the need to strengthen TB control efforts, including support for new cases.