Engaging community pharmacists and alternative practitioners: An approach to active case finding of tuberculosis in Malaysia

Abstract

Contact tracing is the most commonly employed process of identifying the relevant contacts of a person with an infectious disease. A systematic review and meta-analysis on contact tracing of tuberculosis (TB) suspects has shown that the yield of household contact investigation in low- and middle-income countries was 6.5 %. However, a recent study from Malaysia has shown the yield of TB contact tracing as low as 0.49 %. Engaging community pharmacists and alternative practitioners in tracing TB suspects in Malaysia is context-specific and can significantly decrease transmission and incidence of the disease. © Pharmacotherapy Group, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benin, Benin City, 300001 Nigeria. All rights reserved.