ABSTRACT
This study involved thirty patients who proved to have active pulmonary tuberculosis by direct smear examination. Contact tracing identified 120 persons who met the definition of either close [113] or casual [7] contacts. The contacts were 63 males and 57 females with mean age of 17.1 years and the predominant age group of the contacts was below 10 years with total number of 42. There were 17 new cases of tuberculosis detected among contacts; 15 were diagnosed as pulmonary TB and 2 as extra pulmonary [one case of TB lymphadenitis and one case as Potts disease]. The proved risk factors among the contacts included the low socioeconomic level, bad housing, over crowding, daily contact, sleeping in the same room, while the risk factors among the index case included cough frequency presence of cavitation in the chest X-ray. Absence of BCG vaccination seriously affected the contacts as there were 11 cases of contacts with TB non vaccinated