Prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis among household contacts in Hyderabad, Sindh: active contact tracing in children with tuberculosis

Background: Tuberculosis [TB] in children is clearly linked to TB in adults therefore active household contact tracing is an important method of early diagnosis and treatment particularly in high-TB-burden countries

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of TB among household contacts of children suffering from tuberculosis using active contact tracing and linking them to TB program for treatment

Subjects and Methods: A total of 125 children suffering from active tuberculosis [index cases] aged 12 years or less were randomly selected from the outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital of Hyderabad. Using their home address, all house hold members of the index cases [sharing one kitchen] were identified. The households were visited by a team including a doctor and the supported staff and were screened for TB using history, physical examination, sputum for AFB and X-ray of chest. Clinical suspects were divided in to two populations, equal to or less than 12 years of age and greater than this age. All suspected cases were brought to outpatient's department of the hospital where children were examined and diagnosed by pediatrician and adults were examined by the pulmonologist

Results: There were 125 children and 1365 household members. Prevalence of active TB in adult household contacts was 8.1% and among children was 5.7%. Mother, father, grand parents or siblings were the source of disease spread in children. Family history of TB was present in 95% [pulmonary 78%, extra-pulmonary 22%]

Conclusion: Tuberculosis in children is mostly spreading from household member hence deeply required to undertake active contact tracing in each new case that is diagnosed or being treated

Policy message: National and Provincial TB programs should advocate and undertake active screening of all household contacts of all TB cases

Effect of feeding BHC on the biochemical parameters of blood in rabbits

Studies were made by feeding 25 mg per kg body weight of BHC to rabbits daily for twelve weeks. BHC in the blood increased progressively without affecting blood pH. The levels of glucose, cholesterol, total proteins and creatinine increased while that of urea decreased in the blood of treated animals. The differences among the control and treated rabbits for these parameters were highly significant as every one microgram per ml accumulation of BHC in the blood, affected a corresponding increase of 1.82 mg/dl glucose, 2.618 mg/dl of cholesterol, 0.02 g/dI of total proteins and 0.13 mg/dl of creatinine, while a ' decrease of 0.105 mg/dl of urea was observed. The feeding of BHC, therefore, affected these vital biochemical parameters significantly