Prevalence of Latent Tuberculosis Among Children Living in Households with Smear Positive Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients

Abstract

This multicentre cross sectional analytical study was conducted in 2012 in Chittagong, Bangladesh, to evaluate the prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) among children living in households with smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis patient. Two groups of subjects were selected. Sixty five children of 3-12 years living with selected smear positive TB patient and children of same age living with healthy parents were included. For this purpose, sputum positive adult TB patients were selected. Mantoux test (TST) was done in 130 children. To exclude active TB disease in TST positive children, CXR P/A view was taken. Sociodemographic information were also included. The study found that the prevalence of LTBI among children who have household TB contacts was 41.5%, and Children who did not have household TB contact had the prevalence of LTBI of 9.2%. Parents educational status showed that 74.1% of MT positive children had illiterate father and 63% children had illiterate mother. Ninety two percent of MT positive children were from lower and lower middle class family and only 7.2% were from upper class family. It was found that, mean family members were much higher (4.39±0.77) in MT positive cases comparing with MT negative cases (3.7±0.85). 88.9% of MT positive children were living in the same bed and 55.6% were living in different beds in the same house. The present study found that the prevalence of LTBI among children with household contacts of TB patient was higher than non-contact children Parents illiteracy, lower socio-economic, large family, sharing of same indoor environment further increased the prevalence of LTBI among the contacts.