Investigating the Tuberculosis condition in Khuzestan province during 2005-2012

Introduction: Nowadays, despite socio-economic development of communities and controlling majority of communicable diseases, tuberculosis is still one of the main causes of mortality and disability in developing countries. With respect to importance and high incidence of tuberculosis in marginal provinces, the present study aimed to assess the epidemiology of Tuberculosis in Khuzestan province during 2005-2012. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective descriptive-analytical study. Documents of 6363 patients were assessed using the census sampling method. Demographic variables and other necessary data were recorded by TB-Register software and then these data were analyzed through SPSS-16 software. Chi-square and Independent T tests with a significance level of less than 5% were used for the statistical analysis. Poisson test was used to compare TB incidence in consecutive years. Results: The mean&nbsp;&nbsp; age of participants was 39.3 &plusmn; 18 years old. The women&rsquo;s mean age was 2.1 years older than men and there was a significant relationship between age of males and females (P = 0.0001). Cumulative incidence was 148.84/100,000 in the province. More than three quarters (75.7%) were diagnosed as pulmonary tuberculosis, HIV infected (2.7%) and 91.2% were new cases in total. Lymph nodes were the most prevalent in Non-pulmonary TB. Poisson test showed that changing trends of TB incidence was statistically significant in study years (p<0.05). Conclusion: Increasing HIV infection occurrence and TB in southwest of Iran is of the great concerns for public health. Screening, training and preventive activities for controlling of disease is highly recommended for the whole country and in margin provinces in particular.