Case management of childhood tuberculosis in children’s hospitals in Khartoum

No published information is available on the case management of childhood tuberculosis (TB) in Sudan. The aim of this study was to describe the case management of childhood TB in 4 children’s hospitals in Khartoum State, Sudan. Data on 467 children aged 0–14 years registered in 2009 were collected from patient records; 52.9% males and 53.0% aged 5–14 years. Most cases were registered as new cases (89.5%) and most had pulmonary TB (72.4%). Of all cases, 31.0% had sputum smear microscopy done, 35.8% had X-ray and none had a record of being culture confirmed. Category III regimen was given to 58.5%. Reported outcomes were: cured (1.5%), completed treatment (14.6%), transferred out (13.1%), default (17.3%), death (4.3%) and treatment failure (0.6%). Age was significantly associated with treatment outcome, while sex, type of patient, site of TB and treatment category were not significant. Case management of childhood TB is suboptimal in this region.