Incidence of tuberculosis among health care workers at a private university hospital in South Korea.
METHODS
A private university hospital in South Korea.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) among health care workers (HCWs) employed at a university hospital in South Korea.


METHODS
The occurrence of TB cases among HCWs over a 6-year period (2001-2006) was reviewed. The prevalence of TB was compared with that of the general population using a prevalence ratio (PR) adjusted by age and sex.


RESULTS
The study involved 8433 people. TB developed in 61 HCWs (0.72%). The prevalence ratio among all HCWs was 1.05 (95%CI 0.80-1.35). In occupational subgroups, the PRs for doctors, nurses and employees in other departments were respectively 0.58 (95%CI 0.30-1.01), 1.81 (95%CI 1.21-2.59) and 0.95 (95% CI 0.58-1.46). For nurses working in TB-related departments, the relative risk of developing TB was 3.4 times higher (95%CI 1.52-8.25) than for employees in other departments (P=0.005). The PR for nurses working in TB-related department was 5.1 (95%CI 3.23-8.42).


CONCLUSIONS
Among HCWs, nurses working in TB-related departments were at increased risk of developing TB. This suggests that some TB develops via in-hospital infection.
Jo
K-W
KW
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Centre, Seoul, Korea.
Woo
J H
JH
Hong
Y
Y
Choi
C-M
CM
Oh
Y-M
YM
Lee
S D
SD
Kim
W S
WS
Kim
D S
DS
Kim
W D
WD
Shim
T S
TS
D000328:Adult; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D016304:Hospitals, Private; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D017758:Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009726:Nurses; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010564:Personnel, Hospital; D010820:Physicians; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*