Tuberculin test in nursing and human-sciences students

Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of death worldwide due to any single infectious agent. It seems that health care workers including nursing students can be affected easier than the other people, because of probable contacts in hospital. The risk of TB infection in nursing students has not estimated in Iran, so we conducted this study to compare the results of tuberculin test in the beginning and the end of educational course for nursing and human-sciences student. In a Cohort study, 320 students (160 nursing and 160 human-sciences) underwent PPD skin test (5 units RT 23) at the beginning and the end of educational course by expert technician. The data of remaining students (123 nursing and 111 human-sciences) were analyzed by SPSS software using Wilcoxson and Mann-Whitney tests. The frequency distribution of skin reaction in nursing students was negative (0-4 mm: 93.7%), suspected (5-9 mm: 4.4%) and significant (≥15mm: 1.9%) at the beginning of study, while it was negative(75.5 %), suspected (9.8%), positive (10-14 mm 3.3%) and significant (11.4%) at the end of study. The frequency of skin reaction in human-sciences student was negative (93.7%), suspected (0.6%), positive (1.3%) and significant (4.4%) at the beginning of study, while it was negative (79.3%), significant (10.8%), suspected (8.1%) and positive (1.8%) at the end of study. The difference in that proportion of nursing students and control group with positive and significant PPD test at the end of study was statistically significant. The difference for the above proportions between two groups was not statistically significant. All subjects had no significant difference regarding to age, indigenous area and PPD test. Both groups have the same chance for exposure to M. Tuberculosis. The rate of new TB infection in Iranian community has diminished in comparison with the last few decades. Although risk of new infection may be a little bit more after age of 18, but it is still much lower than countries of high burden. The epidemiologic pattern of TB transmission has changed and it is going to become similar to that of developed countries.