Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

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Commentary

Engaging Community Pharmacists and Alternative Practitioners: An Approach to Active Case Finding of Tuberculosis in Malaysia

Muhammad Atif^1*, Syed Azhar Syed Sulaiman¹, Asrul Akmal Shafie², Muhammad Asif³and Shazia Qasim Jamshed⁴

¹Discipline of Clinical Pharmacy, ²Discipline of Social and Administrative Pharmacy, ⁴Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Minden, Penang, ⁴School of Pharmacy, International Islamic University, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia.

*For correspondence: Email: pharmacist_atif@yahoo.com; Tel: +60147572474

Received: 4 December 2012 Revised accepted: 8 November 2013

Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, December 2013; 12(6): 1093-1095

http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/tjpr.v12i6.34

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.