Contact tracing is associated with treatment success of index tuberculosis cases in Uganda.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of contact tracing on the treatment outcomes of index tuberculosis (TB) cases in Uganda. METHODS: We evaluated TB cases registered at an urban public health facility in Uganda in 2015-2020. We extracted data from the unit's TB and contact tracing registers. Treatment outcomes were classified as cure, loss to follow-up, death and treatment failure. Treatment success was the sum of cure and treatment completion. RESULTS: Among 778 TB cases, contact tracing was conducted for 455 (58.5%). Compared with cases without contract tracing (n=323), cases with contract tracing (n=455) had higher treatment success (92.5% vs 79.3%) and cure rates (57.1% vs 39.9%) and lower loss to follow-up (3.5% vs 9.3%), treatment failure (0.4% vs 1.6%) and death (3.5% vs 9.9%) (P<0.001). Contact tracing was associated with higher odds of treatment success (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 3.00, 95% CI 1.92-4.70, P<0.001) and cure (aOR 3.11, 95% CI 1.97-4.90, P<0.001), and lower odds of loss to follow-up (aOR 0.33, (0.13-0.83), P=0.018) and death (aOR 0.38, (0.20-0.72), P=0.003). CONCLUSION: TB contact tracing should be conducted consistently not only for the benefit of identifying new TB cases but also to promote treatment success of index cases.