روند تغييرات شاخص هاي بيماري سل در كودكان زير 14 سال در ايران

Childhood Tuberculosis in Iran: Trends over the 1992 -2005 Period

Background & Objectives: Children are highly vulnerable to TB and childhood tuberculosis is a sign of TB transmission in community. This study aimed to determine the epidemiologic trend of this disease in Iranian children. Method: A Trend Study was conducted to evaluate all Iranian patients aged below 14 who had been diagnosed with pulmonary or extrapulmonary TB from 1992 to 2005. Statistical relationships were tested using chi square tests (X2 ) and the software package SPSS (version 1 1.5). Results: Out of the 6168 cases studied, 2528 (40.1 %) were boys. Patients were assigned to three groups based on disease type: there were 1812 (29.4%) sputum- positive, 1920 (31.1 %) sputum-negative, and 2449(39.7%) extrapulmonary cases.The incidence of sputum-positive TB declined from 0.8 per 100000 in 1992 to 0.2 per 100000 in 2005. A similar declining trend was observed for the overall TB incidence and in the incidence of sputum-negative and extrapulmonary cases. There was significant difference in TB incidence between girls and boys in the 10-14 year age group (P