[Tuberculosis in Reunion island: epidemiological characteristics of notified cases, 2000-2007]

Located in the South West Indian Ocean, Reunion island is close to countries with a strong incidence of tuberculosis disease: Madagascar, 246 per 100,000, Comoros, 44 per 100,000 or Mayotte, 22 per 100,000 in 2006. However, the epidemiology of tuberculosis in Reunion is poorly documented.

This article presents epidemiological characteristics of tuberculosis disease notified between 2000 and 2007 and cases of latent tuberculosis infection for children under 15years old between 2003 and 2007 in Reunion.

The data analysed in this article are collected through the mandatory notification. Multi-drug resistant data come from National Reference Centre for Mycobacteria and Antituberculosis Drug Resistance and mortality data from Centre for the epidemiology of medical causes of death in France.

In Reunion, 495 cases-patients with tuberculosis disease were notified, that is an incidence of eight cases per 100,000 habitants and four cases-patients of latent tuberculosis infection were notified. Regarding tuberculosis disease, the incidence was respectively, 2.4, 6 and 15.9 for the cases-patients aged 0-14, 15-39 and more than 40years old. Pulmonary tuberculosis accounted for 82% of tuberculosis disease notified cases-patients, 90% of which were microbiologically confirmed. Between 2000 and 2006, the frequency of multidrug-resistant was of 2% (8/423) and the mortality rate was 1.2 per 100,000.

These results indicate a low incidence in Reunion which can be explained by a low HIV infection incidence (3.2 per 100,000 in 2003-2005), a good standard of hygiene and a good access to care. However, due to migratory fluxes from nearby high incidence countries, the epidemiological surveillance in Reunion must continue and be enhanced to set up the preventive and control measures around the notified cases.