[Prevention of development of pulmonary tuberculosis in compromised host]

Recently compromised hosts have increased due to aging of population, advance of medical technology and therapy or changes in the dietary life and social life. Concomitantly the proportion of compromised hosts in the patients with pulmonary tuberculosis has also increased. Taking up diabetes mellitus, hemodialysis, collagen disease and lung cancer as the representatives of compromised hosts, we studied the propriety of chemoprophylaxis to prevent the development of tuberculosis and the standard for the subjects in the case of chemoprophylaxis being given. Diabetics top the patients in the high risk group of developing pulmonary tuberculosis. Therefore, giving chemoprophylaxis is considered necessary to prevent the development of tuberculosis from diabetics. Chemoprophylaxis to diabetics should be given only when healing of tuberculosis has been found despite the history of treatment for tuberculosis being absent. In the patients of hemodialysis, the total morbidity of tuberculosis is high, but the morbidity of pulmonary tuberculosis is not too high, so chemoprophylaxis for the patients on hemodialysis is not always necessary. However, chemoprophylaxis according to the same standard for diabetics is necessary for the patients with diabetic nephropathy. In the patients with collagen disease except rheumatoid arthritis under consideration for administration of corticosteroid preparations, chemoprophylaxis is considered desirable where doses of more than 10 mg in terms of prednisolone are administered over a long period of time. In the patients with lung cancer under consideration for administration of corticosteroid preparations, chemoprophylaxis is considered desirable where doses of more than 10 mg in terms of prednisolone are administered over a long period of time.