BACKGROUND: Contact tracing helps in identifying new Tuberculosis (TB) cases in house hold contacts and thus interrupting the transmission. Our Objective was to determine the proportion of paediatric TB cases started on Anti Tuberculosis Treatment (ATT) under NTEP in Madurai district and to screen and estimate the prevalence of Latent TB Infection (LTBI), active TB disease among the household contacts of paediatric TB index cases.
METHODS: A prospective cross sectional study was conducted where 108 household contacts (HHC) of 37 paediatric TB cases were evaluated for any symptoms suggestive of TB and screened for TB using chest X-ray, mantoux test, sputum AFB.To determine the factors associated with active TB, Pearson’s Chi-square test/Fisher’s exact test was performed.
RESULTS: A total of 108 HHC with mean age of 28.6 years were screened. Six of them had previous history of ATT, Mantoux was positive in 10 of them. Chest X-Ray was abnormal in 8 of them. 2(1.9%) HHC were diagnosed on basis of Chest X-Ray changes while 1(0.9%) was diagnosed based on clinical features .2.8% HHC were diagnosed as new TB cases among adults and children
CONCLUSION: This was one of the few studies in India that evaluated the yield of contact investigation from PaediatricTB Index cases and indicates the possibility of contact investigation and the possible contribution towards the nationalobjective of early and improved TB case detection.