Epidemiologic consideration of Tuberculosis in East Health Center of Ahvaz in 2010

Abstract Introduction: Tuberculosis is a contagious disease and a main cause of mortality in humans thus the World Health Organization has declared it as a global emergency. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of tuberculosis and involving factors in patients referring to the diagnosis laboratory of tuberculosis in Ahvaz East Health Center. Materials & Methods: The present study is a retrospective and descriptive - analytical investigation that 1173 people referring to East Health Center of Ahvaz in 2009 in term of tuberculosis were studied, After Ziehl Neelsen stained sputum samples, 97 patients with tuberculosis were diagnosed. Finally, individual and social variables were collected from patients’ records and analyzed. Results: Prevalence of tuberculosis was about 8.3% which 67% of them were males and 33% were women. Prevalence of factors such as smoking, drug addiction, and prison history was 72, 50 and 33 respectively. The highest prevalence was found in the age group 25-34 years. And 80 percent of patients were rural and 20 percent were urban. Conclusion: These studies showed that the risk of TB have been influenced by two important factors including individual factors in addition to social factors, and Smoking, history of prison and drug addiction are the most important factors affecting tuberculosis. Keywords: Tuberculosis, Drug addiction, Smoking, History of prison, Ahvaz.