Tuberculosis in children in the region of slavonski brod

In the past ten-year period (from 1993 to 2003) attention has been paid to tuberculosis in children from the town of Slavonski Brod and adjacent villages of the Brodsko-posavska county. Out of 19,623 children below 18 years of age admitted to the County Hospital "Dr. Josip Benčević" in Slavonski Brod, 271 (1.38%) were referred because of suspected tuberculosis. The grounds for the referral were either contact with a person having tuberculosis (group A, 142 children) or clinical signs and symptoms arousing suspicion of tuberculosis (group B, 129 children). Discharge diagnoses were: contact with person(s) having tuberculosis but otherwise normal clinical findings in the child – 46 children (17%), latent tuberculosis infection – 108 children (39.8%), specific hilar lymphadenopathy – 60 children (22.1%), primary pulmonary tuberculosis – 49 children (18.1%) and postprimary tuberculosis – 8 children (3%). The sources of infection were usually (53.1%) within the family. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was isolated from 19 of 117 children (16.2%) with clinically verified tuberculosis. The number of children referred to the hospital increased from 3 in 1993 to 59 in 2003. That trend could be attributed to an increased risk of tuberculosis due to civil migrations during military activities in Croatia and adjacent Bosnia and Herzegovina (1991 - 1995), to deteriorated socio-economic conditions after the war, and to an increased alertness of epidemiologists and physicians in the primary health care.

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