Muhammad Aurangzeb, Muhammad Masroor, Iftikhar Ahmed, Rana Qamar, Abdul Sattar, Khlid Imran, Masood Hmeed Khan.
Prevalence of pulmonary Tuberculosis in close contacts of diagnosed cases of pulmonary Tuberculosis.
Pak J Chest Med Jan ;10(1):11-22.

Objective: To find out the frequency of pulmonary tuberculosis in close contacts of diagnosed cases of pulmonary tuberculosis whether smear -ve or smear +ve pulmonary tuberculosis Setting: The study was conducted in Civil Hospital Karachi, Lyari General Hospital Karachi and OJHA Institute of Chest Diseases during a period of 3 months from July 2001 to September 2001. Methods: Close contacts personal data and demographic were noted. A detailed relevant history was taken. On completion of history, general physical and systemic examination was done. Finally all relevant investigation including blood CP/ESR, Mantoux test (M.T), x-ray chest, PA view/Lordotic view if needed and sputum for AFB smear examination were performed and recorded on standard proforma. Contacts were divided into two groups: (i) Contacts of smear +ve patients (ii) Contacts of smear -ve patients The data were statistically analyzed on SPSS version 10.0 for Windows and Fishers Exact Test was applied. Results: Tow hundred eighty seven close contacts of 50 diagnosed cases of tuberculosis were included in this study. The age ranges between 4 to 66 years. There were 140 males and 147 females. Over all 26 contacts (15.3%) were found to be suffering from Pulmonary tuberculosis. These included 24 (13.3%) contacts of smear +ve patients and 2 (2%) contacts of smear -ve patients (p = 0.000396). Conclusion: We concluded from this study that there is significant transmission of tuberculosis from a patient of pulmonary tuberculosis to the contacts. Moreover it further showed that smear +ve cases are highly infectious when compared with smear -ve cases.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com