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. 2017 Oct 1;111(10):479-481.
doi: 10.1093/trstmh/trx081.

Tuberculosis among the homeless in Chennai city, South India

Chandrakumar Dolla  1 , C Padmapriyadarsini  1 , A Pradeep Menon  1 , M Muniyandi  1 , Srividya Adinarayanan  2 , Gomathi Sekar  1 , D Kavitha  1 , Srikanth Prasad Tripathy  1 , Soumya Swaminathan  3
Affiliations

Tuberculosis among the homeless in Chennai city, South India

Chandrakumar Dolla et al. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. .

Abstract

Background: In India from a national perspective, the incidence/prevalence of active tuberculosis (TB) among the homeless are unknown.

Methods: Homeless individuals, aged 15 years and above, were screened for TB by radiography and smear examination in Chennai city.

Results: 301 individuals were enrolled and screened for TB; 8% (24/301) had chest symptoms; 5.6% (17/301) found X-ray abnormalities. The overall prevalence of TB was 1661/100 000; prevalence of culture-positive TB was 997/100 000 and smear-positive TB was 664/100 000 population.

Conclusion: There is a need to address TB control among homeless populations. The current pilot study showed that the prevalence of TB was disproportionately high and there is a need for a larger study with an adequately powered sample size.

Keywords: Active case finding; Epidemiology; Homeless; India; Prevalence; Tuberculosis.

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