Epidemiology of Tuberculosis in Bahrain and Pre-employment Screening
Received Date: Feb 01, 2018 / Accepted Date: Feb 15, 2018 / Published Date: Feb 22, 2018
Abstract
Objective: Evaluate the epidemiology of tuberculosis (TB) in Bahrain over the past 10 years and review the local policy of pre-employment screening strategy for and treatment of latent tuberculosis infection.
Methods: Retrospective review of TB surveillance data in ministry of health during the period (2007-2016).
Results: The annual incidence of TB in Bahrain reduced significantly from 34/100,000 in 2007 to 11/100,000 population in 2016. There was a total of 2,440 reported TB cases during the study period; majority of cases (82%) were Non-Bahrainis, 68% were males and 60% had pulmonary disease.
Conclusion: TB incidence in Bahrain is declining, and majority of cases are among male expatriates which reemphasize the importance of pre-employment screening among foreign workers as the main preventive element in TB control program in Bahrain in order to identify most immigrants with latent tuberculosis, thereby preventing substantial numbers of future cases of active disease.
Keywords: Tuberculosis; Miliary; Meningitis; Pre-employment; Screening; PPD
Citation: AlKhawaja S, Romaihi EA, AlJowder W, El Moez Azam NFA, Saeed NK (2018) Epidemiology of Tuberculosis in Bahrain and Preemployment Screening. J Tuberc Ther 3: 113.
Copyright: © 2018 AlKhawaja S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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