Obstacles to tuberculosis control among patienns in Ghanzi district: health care workers' perspectives

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health problem with 8.6 million incident cases and 1.4 million deaths. The African region has approximately one quarter of the world‘s cases and the highest rates of cases and deaths relative to the population. The infection poses a health threat to Botswana with Ghanzi being the most tuberculosis afflicted district in the country, as indicated by the national TB report of 2012. Literature search revealed a paucity of qualitative TB research particularly related to healthcare workers perceptions, attitudes and beliefs about TB and TB clients in African countries. There was no literature found from Botswana on the subject showing that TB is one area in the country that needs to be researched. The proposed study intends to utilize a qualitative approach framed on phenomenology to determine the healthcare workers‘ perceptions to obstacles to TB control among patients in Ghanzi district. Semistructured face to face interviews will be conducted with healthcare workers in the district to determine what they perceive as the obstacles to TB control. Data will be analyzed according to the themes that emerge from the data or within the categories of data using MAXQDA 12 software. The findings from this study could be used to influence policy, practice and may as well be foundational for future research.