Childhood tuberculosis in a reference children's hospital after admission of refugees

• Main Authors: Ayşe Kaman, Ozge Metin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Rabia Yılmaz 2021-03-01
• Series: Journal of Contemporary Medicine
• Subjects: syrian refugees; tuberculosis; children; çocuk; suriyeli mülteciler; tüberküloz
• Online Access: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/jcm/issue/58926/848937

Aim: We aimed to evaluate epidemiologic, clinical, laboratory, microbiologic features, treatment and outcomes of pediatric tuberculosis (TB) patients also to draw attention to immigrant patients. Material- Methods: We retrospectively conducted the medical records of children below 18 years of age with TB between January 2015 and September 2016. Results: A total of 20 TB patients (35% were Syrian refugees, total 65% female) with a median age of 135.5±52.6 months were evaluated. Fourteen (70%) patients were adolescent. The history of contact with an active TB disease patient was found in seven (35%) patients. Four (20%) patients had no complaint at admission whereas the most common symptom was prolonged cough > 2 weeks. Fifteen (75%) patients had a Bacillus Calmette–Guérin scar on the left shoulder. A total of 16 (80%) patients had a positive tuberculin skin test (TST) result. Microbiological confirmation was provided in four (20%) patients totally. The most common chest X-ray findings on admission were hilar lymphadenopathy. Ten (50%) patients had normal chest X-ray and were diagosed with abnormal thorax tomography findings. All of the patients were treated succesfully except one Syrian patients with miliary TB who died. Conclusion: Microbiological confirmation of childhood TB may be absent and the diagnosis can be confirmed in the light of contact history, positive TST reaction, compatible symtomps and radiological evidence. Particular attention might be paid to Syrian refugees, taking into epidemiological characteristics of TB disease and the density of immigrants in the place we live in.