[Tuberculosis control of construction workers living in Hanba].
Construction workers living in temporal quarters, HANBA, rarely have opportunity to receive the routine health screening program such as that for general inhabitants organized by the local government or that for permanent employees by the employer. Long delay in detecting TB and high drop-out rate from TB treatment among them have been reported. We carried out the following interventions to cope with the problems: In 1999 and 2000, we organized TB screening with X-ray and further examination in the same day when necessary among workers in 6 HANBA in Chiba City. A total of 382 workers were screened, and they also received structured interviews to assess their health-related behaviors and conditions. Four active pulmonary TB cases were detected, and the incidence of 1,047/1,000,000 was forty times higher than that of Chiba City. All four patients were treated and cured. According to the experiences through our intervention, we developed the following recommendations on TB control of construction workers living in HANBA: 1) A system carry out the health examination routinely in the HANBA should be provided, and its implementation be supervised by the public health center and the Labor Standards Inspection Office. 2) It is necessary to guarantee worker's minimum living conditions and medical treatment, and for this regular purpose, close cooperation should be established between clinical service providers and public health, social welfare, and work management authorities. 3) We should start "DOTS" (Directly Observed Treatment Short-Course) not only to the patients in the hospital but also to the outpatients and in the HANBA. To control TB among those workers, further effort is necessary to motivate them to receive basic regular health screening program that is provided in free of charge in Japan.
Kimura
Tomoko
T
Chiba Anti-Tuberculosis Association, 1-1-20, Miyako-cho, Chuo-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba 260-0001, Japan. inf-cent@cata.or.jp
Suzuki
Kiminori
K
Yabe
Tsutomu
T
Sunami
Yuko
Y
Shimura
Akimitsu
A
Igari
Hidetoshi
H
Ikegami
Hiroshi
H
Ogura
Keiichi
K
Sasaki
Yuka
Y
Yamagishi
Fumio
F
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003140:Communicable Disease Control; D005160:Facility Design and Construction; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017132:Workplace / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*