European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Introduction: Tuberculosis is a communicable disease which is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and mainly affect the lungs. Tuberculosis affects both immunocompetent and immunocompromised individuals and is the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent. India is a high burden country for Tuberculosis. India has the target of eliminating Tuberculosis by 2025 under National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP). Aims: To Study the knowledge and awareness of Tuberculosis in tuberculosis patients and to Study the knowledge and awareness of NTEP in tuberculosis patients. Material and Methods: The present study was conducted for evaluating the knowledge of tuberculosis and national tuberculosis elimination program in tuberculosis patients visiting the Pulmonary Medicine Department, Government Medical College, Patiala taking antitubercular treatment, tertiary care hospital of Punjab. Result: Out of 501 patients, 97.01 percent of the patients knew when to stop tuberculosis treatment, 28.74 percent of the tuberculosis patients had satisfactory knowledge and awareness of tuberculosis and only 42.71 percent of the patients were aware of the cardinal symptoms of tuberculosis. Conclusion: Almost one-third of PTB patients had limited understanding of tuberculosis. This underscores the need for RNTCP to reform the current information, education, and communication (IEC) system, which is based on a bio-medical framework, and to build a culturally responsive health education system in order to accomplish TB eradication. Instead, the Program should transition from a passive to an active case seeking method.