Why does genitourinary tuberculosis occur less often than might be expected in the ethnic Indian subcontinent population living in the United Kingdom?

Abstract

Genitourinary tuberculosis is the only non-respiratory form of the disease which occurs more often in the white ethnic group than in the Indian Subcontinent (ISC) ethnic group as shown by national tuberculosis surveys of England and Wales. Analysis of non-respiratory tuberculosis in a district where 70% of the notified cases were of ISC ethnic origin, showed that the ethnic distribution of genitourinary tuberculosis was different from all other forms of non-respiratory tuberculosis, in that > 80% cases were of white ethnic origin, whereas for all other sites 70% or greater were of ISC ethnic origin. Factors which may account for this difference are discussed.