Progress in research of epidemiology of extra pulmonary tuberculosis

Abstract

Currently, tuberculosis, including both pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and extra pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) still widely spread worldwide. EPTB has become one of research hotspots, changes in the incidence of EPTB and its composition in TB have occurred, the situation varied with country and region. The age and gender distributions of EPTB cases were different, even contradicted, indicated by different studies. The incidence rate and prevalence rate of EPTB might be underestimated due to insufficient attention paid to EPTB, inadequate diagnostic methods and low diagnosis rate. The cure rate of EPTB is always lower than PTB, posing challenges to global TB control. This paper summarizes the progress in research of EPTB epidemiology in recent years in terms of EPTB definition, epidemiological characteristics of EPTB in the world, correlation of different EPTB and related risk factors to provide reference for the prevention and control of EPTB.