| Objective:Despite its reputation as an illness of the past,Tuberculosis(TB)continues to pose a significant threat to public health worldwide.One-third of the world population is infected and many are ill.Of these,a large proportion dies from the disease each year.P.R.China is classified along with the sub-Saharan African countries to be one of those with a high burden.The prevalence of TB in the country is estimated to be 12%,the average annual prevalent cases at 1.4 million and the average number of deaths at 13,000 annually.However,the latest national survey conducted in 2010 revealed that TB disease was unevenly distributed within the country.Nanjing city,capital of Jiangsu eastern province is showing a rising trend in the previous years.The current study thus,aim to analyze various epidemiological features of tuberculosis in city Nanjing,China during the period 2012-2016.Methods:This is a retrospective,descriptive study based on the TB surveillance data in Nanjing city from January 2012 to December 2016,which were extracted from the Chinese CDC.We statistically analyzed and assessed TB morbidity and mortality data by gender,age,occupation and districts of the city,and also evaluated the morbidity and deaths trends over 5 years of study.Pearson's chi-square test was used to measure trend change and its significance using IBM SPSS 19.0.Result:There was a total of 13,845 reported cases of TB over the study period,out of which 74 have died.The test statistics revealed statistically significant differences among the groups.From 2012-2016,the prevalence rate of active TB decreased from 33.32 to 31.4/100,000 populations,the mortality rate slightly decreased from 0.20 to 0.18/100000,and the case-fatality ratio also somewhat decreased from 0.6%to 0.58%.Tuberculosis infection and deaths were significantly affected by age among the male and female patients studied(P<0.001).Individuals within the age groups of 25-44 and 45-64 years had the highest risk of acquiring tuberculosis among the females and males respectively.Overall,12,992(99.6%)were aged 15 years and over,with total TB males cases outnumbering females(68.8%>31.2%),and the majority of deaths occurred in men.The TB prevalence and mortality increased as age increases,however,only people aged 65 years and above showed a declining morbidity trend.In contrast they bore the highest mortality rates among male and female,but the difference was not significant P>0.05.In the entire population,farmers contributed the most to the caseload(20.7%)and deaths(40.5%)which is showing a rising trend.Retirees also contribute a lot in deaths(36.5%).Occupation did significantly affect the prevalence and mortality of TB(P<0.001).Moreover,the disease trend showed a rising tendency in medical personnel,retirees and house-workers&unemployed.Although the highest prevalence rate of active TB was reported in Jiangning district 1073(16%),Gaochun,a rural district was the most affected in terms of deaths accounting for(26.7%)of the total.In the same vein,howbeit regional variations revealed that 41%of the cases occurred in urban areas including Xuanwu,Gulou,Jianhe,Qinhuai and Yuhuatai,the majority of the deaths were reported both in rural and urban areas(42.2%).TB infection and mortality were also statistically affected geographically P<0.001.Conclusion:Active tuberculosis slightly decreased,and mortality is also steadily decreasing.Tuberculosis prevention and control should put more attention on high risk groups with and without the disease including:the post-adolescents until older adults,male,farmers,householders and retirees and people living in biggest cities so that the incidence of TB will effectively reduce. |
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