Prevalence and risk of active tuberculosis among symptomatic household contacts of bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis subjects treated at the Buea Regional Hospital
Henry Dilonga Meriki ;Chi Joseph Shu ; Ane -Anyangwe Irene ; Demian Nota Anong ; Kukwah Anthony Tufon ; Fritz Roland Nsonghomanyi Fonkeng
CaHReF 20116, Yaoundé Conges hall, 23 – 26 August 2016 , PL048
TB remains a serious public health concern worldwide. The predominant global strategy for identifying people with TB is ‘passive case detection’ which has a low case detection rate therefore is an obstacle to the long-term success of TB control programs giving the possibility of undiagnosed patients posing great risk of transmitting the infection to others.
A hospital/community-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 921 clinically suspected TB patients and those confirmed by microscopy of Ziehl Neelsen stain for Acid fast bacilli were contacted at their residence so as to identify any household contacts (HHC) with symptoms of TB. Data was collected from participants and the results were summarized using descriptive statistics, binary logistic and multivariate logistic regression.
The prevalence of pulmonary TB was 20.6% (190/921) and 7.04% (5/71) among TB suspected cases and symptomatic HHC respectively. In a univariate analysis, age group (p = 0.011), marital status (p = 0.019), employment status (p = 0.041), previous TB contact (p < 0.001), HIV status (p = 0.001) and family size (p = 0.003) were associated with TB occurrence. However, only HIV status (AOR = 4.98, 95% CI = 1.73 - 14.34) and previous TB contact (AOR = 6.08 95% CI = 2.86-12.89) were independently associated with TB occurrence. Approximately 30% of the diagnosed TB cases were detected with sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) centrifuge-concentrated smears.
The study showed that, contact investigation can improve case detection rates for active tuberculosis and therefore can augment the existing comprehensive package of interventions that could substantially reduce TB disease burden at the population level. Risk factors such as family size > 5 persons, previous contact with TB patients, marital and HIV status were associated with TB prevalence. NaOCl concentration technique can be effective to improve case detection rates compared to direct smear.
Household contacts, bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis, risks factors, sodium hypochlorite centrifuged-concentrated smear