Evaluation of Anti-tuberculous Antibodies in Healthy Contact and Non-contacts Persons

This study was conducted to see the presence of the antimycobacterial antibodies in healthy household contacts of tuberculous patients and healthy normal subjects who have never been in contact with tuberculous patients. A total of 200 subjects, 120 with history of household contact and 80 without such history were included in the study. Routine Haematological investigations were performed and all the sera of 200 subjects were tested for IgM, IgG and IgA anti tuberculous antibodies using ELISA technique. There was no difference in the average age of the household contacts and non-contacts. The complaints of pyrexia, night sweats and loss of weight was more in house hold contacts as compared to non-contacts. The awareness about BCG vaccination was equal among the household contacts and non-contacts. The combined serological positivity of the household contacts was 65.8% and the combined serological positivity for non-contacts was 34.1%. There was no statistically significant difference in the presence of IgM among household contacts as compared to non-contacts. However both IgG and IgA were present in significantly higher number of household contacts as compared to noncontacts. This study concludes that the persons living in the house with a patient suffering from active pulmonary tuberculosis (household contact) have more chances of being infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis as compared to the healthy non-contacts.