Epidemiological trends of tuberculosis in Abbottabad and Mansehra, northern Pakistan: a retrospective study (2015–2022)

Pakistan is the fifth most heavily tuberculosis (TB) afflicted country in the world. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiological characteristics of TB in Abbottabad and Mansehra districts mainly because these populations remained unexplored previously. This was a retrospective study carried out between June 2022 and August 2022. Data on TB patients ranging in duration from 1st quarter of 2015 to 1st quarter of 2022 were obtained from tertiary care hospitals and were analyzed using GraphPad Prism v.8.0.1. Data from a total of 16,140 TB patients from both populations were included. Among the patients, ~ 64% had pulmonary TB, and the remaining 36% had extrapulmonary TB. The difference in the TB incidence rate between male and female patients was not significant (50.3% vs. 49.7%, p = 0.0545). The TB incidence rate gradually increased with age, with the highest incidence rate observed in late adolescence and early adulthood. Overall, we noticed a greater proportion of clinically diagnosed TB patients than of those diagnosed through bacteriological or histopathological testing (64% vs. 36%, respectively, p < 0.0001). The proportion of patients who experienced TB relapse was significantly lower than that of patients who experienced new disease (6.8% vs. 93.2%, respectively; p < 0.0001). More than 90% of the patients who were initially diagnosed in hospitals successfully completed their treatment. This first epidemiological study of TB in Abbottabad and Mansehra will provide a baseline for future research in the region. Based on our findings, we urge healthcare professionals and relevant stakeholders to prioritize a strategy that can ensure data integrity, enhance diagnostic accuracy, perform age-targeted screening, and sustain effective treatment protocols to combat TB locally and nationally.