[Clinical features of foreign-born tuberculosis patients treated at our hospital]

There has been an increase in the number of foreign-born tuberculosis (TB) patients residing in Japan. The purpose of this study is to clarify the clinical features of the foreign-born TB patients treated at our hospital.

This study included foreign-born TB patients treated at our hospital between 2000 and 2009. A comparison was performed with Japanese TB patients in the same age group who were treated in the same period.

There were 44 patients (17 males and 27 females; mean age: 23.6 +/- 5.1). These patients originated from 13 different countries, 12 of which were Asian countries such as China and the Philippines, and 8 of which were WHO-designated high-burden TB countries. The period between the patient's entry into Japan and the onset of TB was less than a year for half of the cases. As compared with the Japanese patients group, the foreign patients group included a significantly higher proportion of students and a significantly large number of cases found by periodic health examination. In terms of clinical findings, no significant difference was observed in the proportion of cavitary cases (37.5%) and of smear positive cases (37.5%); however, the frequency of drug-resistant cases (30.4%) was significantly higher among the foreign patients than the Japanese patients. The cure rate was 75% among foreign-born patients, and there were no defaulters.

Compared with Japanese patients with the same ages, the foreign-born TB patients treated at our hospital included a high proportion of students from high-burden TB countries who were detected by periodic health examination and a higher proportion of drug-resistant cases. The treatment outcome was satisfactory without any defaulters. Periodic mass health examinations and drug susceptibility tests are important, and careful health examination is necessary for all individuals from high-burden TB countries when they enter Japan.