Abstract:

Objective The epidemiological investigation on an outbreak of school tuberculosis epidemic was conducted to explore the challenges and deficiencies in the management of the tuberculosis epidemic in schools. Methods Descriptive epidemiological tools were used to investigate and analyze an outbreak of school tuberculosis epidemic occurred between October 2020 and June 2021. Active case finding and close contacts tracing were conducted using the tools including tuberculin skin test (TST) and chest X-ray. Results After 1 case with sputum smear positive tuberculosis was diagnosed, a total of another 4 active tuberculosis cases were identified during 4 times of close contacts surveys. The first-round survey was conducted among 54 close contacts (47 students, 7 faculty) of the index case. The prevalence of TST≥15 mm was 4.44% (2/45) for students and 1/7 for faculty, and chest radiographs were found to be normal for all of them. None of the students with TST≥15 mm and without active pulmonary tuberculosis received preventive treatment on the basis of informed consent. In the subsequent survey, the TST conversion rate was 6/8 among students living in the same dormitory with the index case, 4/5 among the students studied in the same group with the index case and 3/3 among those ate together regularly with the index case. In addition, the 4 new identified cases were all TST converters. Conclusion Our results indicated that the investigation and management of close contacts need to be further strengthened in the process of handling tuberculosis epidemic in schools. To identify recent infections among close contacts and to improve the coverage of preventive treatment are key work should be improved.

Key words: Students, Tuberculosis,pulmonary, Pandemics, Contact tracing