Referral and treatment outcomes of tuberculosis patients who crossed the border from Japan to the philippines.
Background
The referral and treatment outcomes of tuberculosis (TB) patients referred from Japan to the Philippines have not yet been systematically reported. This study aimed to describe the cross-border referral process for TB patients referred from Japan to the Philippines.


Methods
This is a retrospective descriptive review of the referral process between the two countries. The data on the pathways of Filipino patients with TB or latent TB infection initially treated in Japan from 2009 to mid-2018 were summarized. We calculated the proportion of the referred-and-accessed and that of the successfully treated in the health facilities in the Philippines. The Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test was applied to test significant differences between categorical data.


Results
Among the 36 Filipino TB patients referred, 83.3% (30 patients) were successful in accessing any of the health facilities. Among these, 28 patients confirmed that they had started TB treatment in the Philippines. Age groups (P = 0.17), gender (P = 0.76), planned place of residence (P = 0.44), bacteriological results (P = 0.81), and TB patient types (P = 0.96) did not show any significant differences in the referred-and-access rate. The treatment success rate among the 23 TB patients (excluding five patients who were still receiving treatment as of writing) was 91.3%. However, only three out of five multidrug-resistant TB patients successfully started treatment.


Conclusions
The current cross-border TB patient referral mechanism between Japan and the Philippines indicated successful results. However, it needs to be enhanced by strengthening the mechanism to track referral outcomes systemically.
['Ohkado|Akihiro|A|', 'Querri|Aurora|A|', 'Shimamura|Tamae|T|', 'Ota|Masaki|M|', 'Celina Garfin|Anna Marie|AM|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D002648:Child D002675:Child, Preschool D000076263:Communicable Diseases, Imported D003266:Continuity of Patient Care D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007223:Infant D007564:Japan D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D010679:Philippines D012017:Referral and Consultation D012189:Retrospective Studies D014195:Travel D016896:Treatment Outcome D014376:Tuberculosis D055815:Young Adult
tuberculosis pathway mechanism Continuity of patient care