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- Title
Risk Factors for Transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a Primary School Outbreak: Lack of Racial Difference in Susceptibility to Infection.
- Authors
Hoge, Charles W.; Fisher, Linda; Donnell, H. Denny; Dodson, Douglas R.; Tomlinson, G. Victor; Breiman, Robert F.; Bloch, Alan B.; Good, Robert C.
- Abstract
Recent data have suggested that there are racial differences in the susceptibility to infection by . An opportunity to test this suggestion was afforded by an outbreak of tuberculosis in a racially mixed elementary school in St. Louis County, Missouri. A physical education teacher was discovered to have cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis. Of 343 students in the school, 176 (51 percent) were found to be tuberculin skin test positive (≥5 mm induration by Mantoux method); 32 children had abnormal chest radiographs. More frequent contact with the physical education teacher was associated with infection (p < 0.001). Black children were no more likely to be infected than were white children (relative risk (RR) = 0.98,95% confidence interval (Cl) 0.78–1.22). However, black children who were tuberculin positive had larger skin reactions than did white children (mean, 18.9 vs. 16.6 mm, < 0.001) and were more likely to have abnormal chest radiographs (RR = 2.76, 95% Cl 1.44–5.27). Among tuberculinpositive children, low body mass index (less than 10th percentile) was associated with active disease (RR = 2.90, 95% Cl 1.45–5.80). The analysis of race was unchanged after controlling for sex, body build, and level of contact with the physical education teacher. Widespread tuberculous infection resulted from contact with a highly infectious staff person. Thin body build was a risk factor for active disease. Black children were no more susceptible to infection than were white children, although they more commonly developed radiographic evidence of active disease.
- Publication
American Journal of Epidemiology, 1994, Vol 139, Issue 5, p520
- ISSN
0002-9262
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a117035