Why are tuberculosis patients not treated earlier? A study of informal health practitioners in Bangladesh

This study examines the role of informal health practitioners in delays in initiating tuberculosis (TB) treatment in new smear-positive TB patients. It aims to determine the time between the start of symptoms and the start of TB treatment in selected urban and rural a reas of Bangladesh, and to document the factors related to delay in treatment initiation, focusing on the role of informal health practitioners. The authors found that while informal practitioners appeared to provide more accessible services (patient delay was shorter when they first consulted informal practitioners, whether in urban or rural areas), the total and health systems delays were greater when the first practitioner was from the informal sector.