Epidemiology of tuberculosis in Benin

Abstract

Setting: Benin, West Africa.

Objective: To describe the epidemiology of tuberculosis (TB) in Benin.

Design: Analysis of two tuberculin surveys initiated in 1987 and 1994 and of the quarterly reports of the Basic Management Units to the National Tuberculosis Programme from 1995 to 2007.

Results: The average annual risk for a child in Benin of becoming infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis was around 0.5% in the mid 1980s. The notification rate increased by approximately 1% each year over the observation period and was on average 35 per 100,000 population, with a male-to-female sex ratio of 1.8 and no shift in the age structure of the cases over the observation period. Human immunodeficiency virus prevalence was 14% (97% of the patients were tested). There is a strong gradient of incident notification rates from the north to the south of the country that seems to be related to the population density.

Conclusion: Both the tuberculin skin test survey results and the notification data suggest that the TB problem in Benin is much smaller than in eastern and southern African countries.