Tuberculosis: a study of 111 cases in an area of high prevalence in the extreme south of Brazil

Abstract

Tuberculosis is an increasingly important public health problem in developing countries. We studied 111 tuberculosis patients confirmed by mycobacteria isolation between 1998 and 2000 in Rio Grande, in south Brazil. One-hundred-thirteen pulmonary and extrapulmonary clinical materials were examined through culture by the Ogawa-Kudoh method and through smear examination by the Ziehl-Nielsen or Kinyoun methods. The identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was done through the usual phenotypical methods. The proportion method (indirect technique) was used to determine the resistance of isolates. The man/woman ratio was 2.6:1, 75% were white, and the group had a mean age of 39.7±12.7. Risk factors were present in 38.7% (34 men and 9 women, p=0.2), with a mean age of 35 (p=0.002); infection by HIV was the most frequent (28.8%), followed by alcoholism (16.2%) and injected drug use (15.3%). The frequency of M. tuberculosis isolates was 99.1%. Pulmonary disease occurred in 88.3% of the cases, extrapulmonary in 9.9% and 1.8% in both. There was an association between extrapulmonary tuberculosis and the presence of risk factors (p=0.0001). Resistance to isoniazid was found in 4% of the isolates and to isoniazid and rifampin in 2%, all being patients with some risk factors. The profile of tuberculosis in the population of this study followed the pattern described for developing regions of the world.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a HIV‐1‐infected population from Southeastern Brazil in the HAART era

“…Sã o José do Rio Preto city (population 400 000) is one of the 12 cities with higher coefficients of TB ⁄ HIV cases (CVE 2006) in Sã o Paulo State and occupies the fifth place in AIDS incidence (CVE 2008 Matos et al 2004;Silveira et al 2006). As expected, the positive association between prison record and MT isolation (28.3%) found in this study was greater than that previously published (6.3%) for a TB ⁄ HIV-coinfected population from Rio Grande do Sul, Extreme South of Brazil (Mattos et al 2006 as the incidence index of the prison population in São Paulo State is 17.8 times higher than that of the general population (Nogueira & Abrahã o 2009). In 1996, Brazil took the pioneering decision to provide free HAART to all individuals with AIDS, which greatly contributed to increasing the survival of this population (Arruda et al 2004;Goldberg et al 2005).…”

“…2006). As expected, the positive association between prison record and MT isolation (28.3%) found in this study was greater than that previously published (6.3%) for a TB/HIV‐co‐infected population from Rio Grande do Sul, Extreme South of Brazil (Mattos et al. 2006).…”

Factors Associated with Migration in Individuals Affected by Leprosy, Maranhão, Brazil: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study

“…Migration-associated alcohol consumption has been well documented [8, 9, 35] and has also been found to be associated with mycobacterial disease [36] and increased susceptibility to infection [37], which may be relevant in terms of susceptibility to leprosy infection. In Maranhão, current alcohol consumption was found to be a significant factor for those newly diagnosed with leprosy who are birth, past five-year, and circular migrants compared to nonmigrant residents with leprosy.…”

Tuberculosis among people who use drugs in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

“…22 Living conditions and HIV infection have also been described in the literature as important factors associated with TB. 10,11,13 Other factors described in the literature, such as a history of TB, imprisonment and sharing crack pipes, were not found in this study. Regarding history of TB, this variable was solely based on participant reporting, so it may have limited validity.…”

“…7 With the decrease in the incidence of TB, the disease burden is increasingly borne by urban sub-populations living in precarious conditions, [8][9][10] including PWUD. Drug use is a significant factor in the epidemiology of TB [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] and is associated with a higher prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) as well as higher levels of tuberculosis disease incidence and prevalence. 13,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] Furthermore, PWUD are at increased risk of developing antibiotic-resistant forms of TB owing to their precarious lifestyles, difficulty in accessing healthcare due to stigmatisation and discrimination, specific challenges with adherence to treatment, breaks in care related to incarceration and potential co-morbidities (e.g.…”