Comparison of Early and Late Tuberculosis Deaths in Korea.

The cause of death in patients with tuberculosis (TB) may differ according to the phase of anti-tuberculosis treatment. However, there are limited data regarding this issue in Korea. We compared the cause of death of TB patients who died during the early intensive and late continuation phase of treatment. Twenty (56%) of the 36 early deaths were due to TB-related causes, whereas 34 (89%) of the 38 late deaths were due to TB-unrelated causes. This finding suggests that TB-related early deaths mainly attributable to delayed diagnosis should be improved to further reduce the overall TB deaths.