title: Contact tracing of a 15-year-old girl with smear-negative pulmonary tuberculosis in Tehran.
abstract: Early detection of tuberculosis (TB) cases and supervised treatment are vital for control of the disease. To assess TB transmission from a sputum smear-negative pulmonary TB case, the contacts of a 15-year-old Iranian girl diagnosed with smear-negative TB in 2010 were traced. In all, 52 classmates and close friends and 15 school staff were screened by tuberculin skin test and chest X-ray. Those with a positive skin test or abnormal chest X-ray were further evaluated by chest spiral computed tomography (CT) scan and triple gastric washing. All classmates and close friends were Iranian and female. Of the 52 girls, 17 (32%) had latent infection (either positive skin test or abnormal chest X-ray) and 3 (5.7%) had active TB (abnormal CT or positive culture additional to positive skin test or abnormal X-ray). None of the staff had abnormal findings. Contact tracing should be considered for contacts of all children with symptomatic pulmonary TB, even those who are smear-negative.
authors: Pediatric Respiratory Diseases Research Center, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Masih Daneshvari Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Baghaie
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Khalilzadeh
authors: M R
authors: MR
authors: Bolursaz
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Parsanejad
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016358:Contact Tracing / Q000379:methods*; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D012882:Skin Tests / Q000379:methods; D013183:Sputum / Q000382:microbiology; D014374:Tuberculin Test; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000635:transmission*