Do Doctors Know Enough On Tuberculosis? A Survey Among Government Medical Officers In The Curative Health Sector

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a global epidemic with over 2 billion people, equal to one-third of the world’s population, are currently estimated to be infected. In Sri Lanka, despite an effective national programme for TB control and mass scale immunoprophylaxis, TB still remains a growing public health issue with over 9000 new cases being detected annually. Studies conducted in many high prevalent settings had clearly shown that the knowledge and practices among many general practitioners and family physicians do not conform to WHO guidelines or expectations. A survey among government medical offi cers in the curative health sector was carried out with the objective to assess the basic knowledge on tuberculosis (TB) among non-specialist medical offi cers (MOs).