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Abstract
The baseline prevalence and characteristics of tuberculosis (TB) among general healthcare workers (HCWs) in southeastern China remains unknown. We conducted a retrospective study based on the TB surveillance data in Zhejiang Province from 2005 to 2011, which were extracted from the national Tuberculosis Information Management System (TIMS). We calculated and compared annual notification rates of different occupational groups and analyzed the epidemiological and clinical characteristics. The annual TB notification rates among general HCWs declined steadily from 2005 to 2011. On average, HCWs showed annual TB notification rates lower than the general population but higher than teachers. Recorded HCW TB patients averaged 35.5 years of age, with females outnumbering males (58.0% > 42.0%). The proportion of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) was higher among male than in the female patients (88.5% > 83.4%, P = 0.031). Our study suggested that general HCWs run a higher occupational risk than teachers although the two groups are socioeconomically comparable and that the priority should be given to the young female HCWs for TB prevention in healthcare institutions.
Highlights
Frequent exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) puts healthcare workers (HCWs) at a high risk of infection with tuberculosis (TB) [1]
This study showed that the notification rates of TB and pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) among general healthcare workers had declined from 2005 to 2011, which was consistent with those among the general population in Zhejiang province and China as a whole [6,10]
The annual notification rates of TB and PTB among general Healthcare Workers (HCWs) in Zhejiang Province were lower than those of the total population but higher than those of teachers, whose socioeconomic status was comparable to HCWs [12]
Summary
Frequent exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) puts healthcare workers (HCWs) at a high risk of infection with tuberculosis (TB) [1]. Compared with high-income countries, TB prevalence among health workers has been higher in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where the prevalence of latent tuberculosis infections (LTBI) has ranged from 33% to 79% [1,2,3,4]. To combat the spread of TB, China launched a national Tuberculosis Program (NTP) in 2001, which has effectively curbed the TB epidemic with a 60.9% drop in the prevalence rate of smear-positive TB from 2000 to 2010 [6]. A recent survey among 5235 HCWs reported that the annual prevalence rate of TB was above 600/100,000 in three provincial regions: Beijing, Inner Mongolia and Shanghai [8]. Prevalence of the multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has been found as high in
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