Al-Absi A., Bassili A., Abdul Bary H., Barker A., Daniels M., Munim A., Seita A., Williams B., Dye C.
National Tuberculosis Control Programme, Ministry of Public Health and Population, Sana'a, Yemen; Tropical Disease Research, Stop TB, World Health Organization, Abdul Razzak Al Sanhouri Street, Nasr City, Cairo 11371, Egypt; Desmond Tutu TB Centre, Cape Town, South Africa; World Health Organization, Khartoum, Sudan; Stop TB, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
Al-Absi, A., National Tuberculosis Control Programme, Ministry of Public Health and Population, Sana'a, Yemen; Bassili, A., Tropical Disease Research, Stop TB, World Health Organization, Abdul Razzak Al Sanhouri Street, Nasr City, Cairo 11371, Egypt; Abdul Bary, H., National Tuberculosis Control Programme, Ministry of Public Health and Population, Sana'a, Yemen; Barker, A., Desmond Tutu TB Centre, Cape Town, South Africa; Daniels, M., Desmond Tutu TB Centre, Cape Town, South Africa; Munim, A., World Health Organization, Khartoum, Sudan; Seita, A., Tropical Disease Research, Stop TB, World Health Organization, Abdul Razzak Al Sanhouri Street, Nasr City, Cairo 11371, Egypt; Williams, B., Stop TB, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland; Dye, C., Stop TB, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
SETTING: Yemen. OBJECTIVE: To review the epidemiological situation of tuberculosis (TB) in Yemen by conducting a tuberculin survey and by comparing the results obtained with those of a previous tuberculin survey from 1991. DESIGN: A nationwide tuberculin survey enrolling 31276 schoolchildren aged between 7 and 12 years. RESULTS: Skin indurations were recorded for 28499 schoolchildren, of whom 16927 (59.4%) had no bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) scar. Analysis of the distribution of indurations was difficult as it did not show any bimodal pattern. Prevalence of infection and annual risk of tuberculosis infection (ARTI) were thus estimated using the mirror image and mixture methods, and not the cut-off point method. The two methods indicated similar results: respectively 0.45% and 0.51% for prevalence of infection, and 0.05% and 0.05% for ARTI. In comparison with the 1991 tuberculin survey, the average annual decline of ARTI was 9.0% by the mirror method and 5.5% by the mixture method. CONCLUSION: Yemen seems to have a low ARTI (0.05%), and TB infection seems to be declining considerably. Analysis of the survey results highlighted the limitations of tuberculin surveys in countries with comparable epidemiological situations. © 2009 The Union.