title: Tuberculosis epidemiology in India: a review.
abstract: High prevalence and incidence of disease and a high rate of transmission of infection characterise the tuberculosis (TB) situation in India. Disease surveys conducted in different parts of the country since the 1950s have reported prevalences of smear-positive pulmonary TB (PTB) of 0.6-7.6 per 1000 population, culture-positive TB of 1.7-9.8 and culture and/or smear-positive TB of 1.8-12.7. The incidence of smear-positive PTB has been observed in the range of 1.0-1.6/1000 and that of culture-positive PTB 1.0-2.5/1000 in the limited number of studies carried out. The annual risk of tuberculous infection (ARTI) had been estimated at 1-2% for most of the tuberculin surveys carried out in different areas over different time periods. During a nationwide study in 2000-2003, the average ARTI in the country was estimated at 1.5%. An increasing trend has been observed in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositivity among TB cases, which has been found to vary between 0.4% and 28.8% in different studies conducted mostly at tertiary health care centres. The proportion of new cases with multidrug resistance (MDR) was relatively low, at 0.5-5.3%. However, the proportion of MDR cases among previously treated cases varied between 8% and 67%.
authors.affiliation: National Tuberculosis Institute, Bangalore, India. vin_chadha@rediffmail.com
authors.forename: V K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Chadha
mesh_terms: D017088:AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D018088:Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission