An assessment of default and non-compliance in tuberculosis control in Pakistan.

Rates in particular for default from clinics and to a lesser degree non-compliance to treatment for patients with pulmonary tuberculosis have rarely been described quantitatively in the literature. In this report we describe studies in which an outpatient population in rural Pakistan was found retrospectively to have a default rate of 66%, and a non-compliance rate of 53% for P.A.S. and 60% for isoniazid measured by objective pharmacological tests. Suggestions are made for a change from the established out-patient approach, to intermittent high dose chemotherapy administered by health workers in the community.