Symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis in consecutive smear-positive cases treated in Ethiopia

The purpose of the study was to define in detail the usually accepted respiratory and non-respiratory symptoms of newly discovered smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis in a group of Ethiopians. There were 163 consecutive patients referred to the weekly Chest Clinic at the Tuberculosis Demonstration and Training Centre in Addis Ababa. The results showed that more than 5% of pulmonary tuberculosis cases had respiratory symptoms of less than 2 weeks. Some symptoms such as haemoptysis, chest pain and dyspnoea prompted early reporting while there was a delay in reporting other symptoms such as cough, in spite of cough being present in all patients. Most of the non-respiratory (constitutional) symptoms were reported fairly early. A history of tuberculosis contact was relevant in this group of patients. A negative Mantoux test was noted in 20% of patients.