Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 29, 2026

Chronic Intermittent Ethanol Vapor Exposure Paired with Two-Bottle Choice to Model Alcohol Use Disorder
Published on: June 23, 2023
Alcohol use and clinical manifestations of tuberculosis
Christina T Fiske1, Carol D Hamilton, Jason E Stout
1Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Objectives:
Excess alcohol use represents a significant challenge in tuberculosis control. Whether alcohol use enhances transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is not known.
Methods:
We analyzed North Carolina, USA surveillance data for all adult (> 14 years) tuberculosis cases reported 1994-2006 (N = 5556).
Results:
The prevalence of excess alcohol use among tuberculosis cases declined from 27.3% in 1994 to 17.9% in 2006. Cases with excess alcohol use were more likely to have pulmonary tuberculosis compared with cases without excess alcohol use (92.5% vs. 77.2%, p < 0.0001). Among pulmonary cases, excess alcohol use was associated with cavities on chest radiograph (36.8% vs. 28.2%, p < 0.0001) and positive acid-fast sputum smears (65.9% vs. 45.8%, p < 0.0001).
Conclusions:
Although excess alcohol use is becoming less prevalent among tuberculosis cases in North Carolina, cases who use excess alcohol had clinical features associated with greater infectiousness, and represent a significant public health problem.
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