اپیدمیولوژی سل در ده سال اخیر در بیرجند (85-1375)

Background and Aim: Tuberculosis (TB) covers a wide spectrum of clinical diseases caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis. Each second, one individual is infected with TB every four seconds one develops it and every 10 seconds one patient loses his or her life because of the disease. Ten million new cases of TB and 3 million deaths by this infection are reported annually. Regarding the importance of the disease in our country, particularly its high prevalence in the bordering provinces of the country, the present study was designed and carried out to assess the epidemiology of TB in Birjand. Materials and Methods: This research was an analytical and descriptive study covering all patients who had referred to the center of TB control in Birjand during one decade (1996-2006). Data collection was done through a questionnaire aptly designed for the study. The obtained data was analysed by means of SPSS software, statistical tests including 2 and t-test were used at the significant level of P<0.05. Results: Totally, 840 cases were diagnosed 42.6% of them were males, 96.1% Iranians, and 41% were villagers. Mean age of the patients was 48.921.6 years. Prevalence of the disease varied between 14.6% (the least) and 40.6% (the most) per 100000 people .Out of the total cases, %70 (588 patients) were pulmonary tuberculosis and %30 (252) were extrapulmonary the most common of which were lymph node, spinal column, and pleural TB. Regarding types of the disease 90.5% were new cases, 8% were relapses, 0.6% treatment failure, 0.2% resistant 83.7% were treated with a 6 month and 16.3% with an 8 month regimen. This research didn't show any significant difference with respect to sex, nationality, and habitation. Mean age of developing the disease in males was significantly higher than females’ (P=0.003). The age of the patients was also significantly higher in extrapulmonary compared to pulmonary TB (P<0.001). Conclusion: Regarding the high prevalence of TB incidence in Birjand it is necessary to follow up case finding, prevention and treatment of TB in the health-care system of the city so that an appropriate condition for the decrease of TB incidence would be provided.