Abstract: Objective   To explore the reported incidence and epidemic features of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in students in China. Methods  We got numbers of reported PTB patients (students and whole population) data from Chinese Infectious Disease Report Information System and abstracted total numbers of students in school using data from China Statistical yearbook, then used them to calculated incidence of reported PTB patients (students and whole population). Besides, we got data of demographic, incidence and prognosis features of registered PTB patients (students and whole population) from Chinese Tuberculosis Information Management System, and PTB emergencies reports from Chinese Public Health Emergencies Information Management System. Together we used data mining methods to analyze the epidemic features of PTB patients among school students in 2011. Results  The reported PTB incidence in students was 20.16/100 000 (41 608/206 339 584) in 2011, while in whole population the incidence was 71.09/100 000 (953 275/1 340 909 996). The highest and lowest reported PTB incidences at provincial level in 2011 were 66.24/100 000 (Tibet, 350/528 389) and 10.54/100 000 (Shandong, 1508/14 300 995). In 2011, 30.59%（12 193/39 853） registered PTB patients in student were smear positive, the proportion was higher than that in all PTB patients (46.82%, 423 830/905 344) (χ²=3542.85, P<0.01).The primary smear-positive patients in students got higher sputum negative conversion rate after 2 months treatment (97.37%, 11 310/11 616) and cure rate (95.56%,11 278/11 802) than all PTB patients (93.83%, 353 729/377 005; 93.98%, 353 238/375 859)(χ²=247.70/50.79, All P<0.01).   Conclusion  In China, the reported incidence of PTB in students is approximately 1/3 of all PTB patients, and the proportion of smear positive cases is lower than whole TB cases, while the cure rate is higher than whole TB cases. However, some provinces and prefectures still need to enhance TB control in students, detect and report public health emergencies induced by TB in school more timely.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary/epidemiology, Incidence, Students