Pulmonary tubercolosis (TB) is a major public health problem in developing countries. Diagnosis of the disease is often difficult, as it is based mainly on clinical criteria and simple laboratory tests that are not easily available in most health care facilities in limited-resource settings.

We analyzed the data of 117 TB patients from April 2006 through September 2008 in order to identify simple and reproducible clinical and laboratory criteria linked to TB diagnoses in limited-resource health care facilities such as this one in Wolisso, in the Southwest Shewa Zone in Oromia Region, in Ethiopia.

The data collected revealed that the most typical symptoms found in TB patients were a long-lasting cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, weight loss, fever, weakness, night sweats and an emaciated physical condition.