survey of tuberculosis patients in Yazd and Shiraz

ABSTRACT

Although many activities have been done to control tuberculosis in Iran but unfortunately, tuberculosis is an important public health problem in Iran like many other developing countries. In this study, tuberculosis patients who had, for their diseases, file to be recorded were evaluated in Yazd and Shiraz at the same time. This cross-sectional study was case series conducted in Yazd and Shiraz at the same time, and all the pulmonary tuberculosis patients who had file to be recorded entered into the study. We used questionnaire which recorded the patient's age,sex, occupation, nationality, smear and culture results, ESR and TB location. Totally, 136 pulmonary tuberculosis case records [32 in Yazd, 104 in Shiraz] were evaluated. Most of the patients were 51-75 years old in Yazd and 26-50 years old in Shiraz [P-value = 0.00]. Of the patients, 52.9% in Yazd were female and 63.7% in Shiraz were male [P-value =0.02]. Positive smear rate in Yazd was 68.7% and in Shiraz 69.2%. Twenty three and half percent of tuberculosis patients in Yazd and 40.8% in Shiraz were Afghan and others were Iranian [P-value =0.01]. About ESR, there was no significant difference in both sexes. Finally in both cities, 59.5% of patients had pulmonary tuberculosis and 40.8% extra pulmonary tuberculosis. The most common location of extra pulmonary tuberculosis was respectively lymph node, bone, and pleura. The rate of positive and negative smear of pulmonary tuberculosis is near the expectancy of WHO [70%], but extra pulmonary tuberculosis was more than expectancy so we suggest that diagnosis indices of extra pulmonary tuberculosis should be more considered