Incidence of tuberculosis infection in a South Indian village with a single sputum positive case:an epidemiological case study

Krishnamurthy, M.S.; Channabasavaiah, R.; Nagaraj, A.V. and Chandrasekhar, P. (1991) Incidence of tuberculosis infection in a South Indian village with a single sputum positive case:an epidemiological case study. Indian Journal of Tuberculosis, 38. pp. 123-130.

Full text available as:

PDF - Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader or other PDF viewer. 84 Kb

Abstract

During a longitudinal survey, carried out in 119 randomly selected villages of Banglore district for studying the time trend of tuberculosis, the average infectivity of a case over a period of one and a half years was found to be six. However, 61 persons were found to be infected between I-II surveys in one village with just a single bacteriological case (index case) identified at the I survey. This case study investigates the background of the observed high infectivity. The investigation reveals that at least 21 persons, found newly infected at II survey, had varying levels of contact with the index case. The remaining infected persons could not be linked, either directly or indirectly, to any other known bacteriological case including the index case in the village. All the persons identified as infected at II survey were distributed throughout the village, beyond the likely zone of infection of the index case.

Archive Staff Only: edit this record