Delays in presentation and diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis: a retrospective study of a tertiary health service in Western Melbourne, 2011–2014

Abstract

In this low-incidence, high-resource setting, patient delays contribute most to total delay in PTB diagnosis. Strategies addressing this aspect of the TB diagnosis pathway, such as health literacy and promotion programmes for new migrants and raised primary healthcare awareness, could have the largest impact on reducing total PTB diagnosis delays.