Epidemiology of Tuberculosis in Ardabil, 2001-2005

Tuberculosis has been the most common fatal disease among adults. It was ranked as the 7th most prevalent disease in the Global Burden of disease. It was also predicted to retain similar rank based on the Disability-Adjusted life Years (DALY) Criteria in the year 2020, whereas this rink has decreased for other infectious diseases. Tuberculosis varies in socio-demographic characteristics in different geographic areas. Therefore understanding its pattern could be useful in designing a preventive strategy. This study was conducted to identify socio-demographic pattern of this disease on the basis of smear. This cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted in Ardabil city by reviewing 232 samples of patients who were under treatment for TB during last four years. Information was collected from patients’ records which were kept in Ardabil health center. The Data were analyzed through SPSS. 37.5% of cases were male and the rest were female. 86 of subjects had positive smear, 44 negative smear and 98 were diagnosed as extra pulmonary tuberculosis and 4% as relapse. The average age of cases was 42 with SD=19.4 ranging between 2 and 86 years. Positive smear’s pulmonary TB more prevalent in urban areas than rural areas while negative smear’ pulmonary TB and relapse were more frequently observed in the rural areas. Smear positive was 59.3% smear negative was 59.1% and extra-pulmonary TB 67.3% were more common in women than men. However, relapse rate was equal in both sexes. the average age of our subjects was compatible to the findings of other studies.66% of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis had positive smear which is close to 65% that was reported in the national program for prevention of TB. The ratio of positive smear’ pulmonary TB to extra-pulmonary and negative smear’s pulmonary TB was 60% which differs to the expected ratio of one. Relapse rate was 1.7% which is less than expected rate (4%). This shows that DOTS was a successful program.