Review of tuberculosis in Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

The prevalence of tuberculin reactivity in Saudi Arabia in children aged 5-14 years is 6% [which puts it in the rank of middle prevalence countries]. However, two spots of high prevalence exist the City of Jeddah, and the urban centres in the Southern Region with statistically significant differences between Saudis and non-Saudis; these could have resulted from the pattern of settlers in Jeddah, and close social contact between the southern region and the Republic of Yemen The incidence of smear-positive pulmonary cases in Riyadh in 1991-92 was 15.2 per 100 000 and 1 predicted the nationwide incidence of all cases to be 30 per 100.000 which is about double the official notifications. The figures are 2-4 times higher than industrialized countries. There are alarming data of considerably high microbial resistance to antituberculosis drugs particularly in the Western and Southern Regions [where the majority of isolates are multi-drug resistant]. The microbial resistance and the high infection rates brought by legal and illegal settlers from poor countries are considered to be the greatest threat to future control of tuberculosis in Saudi Arabia. The review makes several recommendations: