[TUBERCULOSIS ANNUAL REPORT 2014--(1) Summary of Statistics on Tuberculosis Notification and Foreign-born...

This brief is the first of a series of documents based on the Tuberculosis Annual Report 2014. It includes a summary of tuberculosis (TB) statistics, including data on foreign-born TB patients notified and registered in Japan in 2014. For the first time, the number of newly notified cases (all forms of TB) fell below 20,000. In 2014, a total of 19,615 patients were notified, a rate of 15.4 per 100,000 population The number of sputum-smear positive pulmonary. TB patients notified was 7,651, a rate of 6.0 per 100,000 population. The number of patients with latent TB infections increased slightly from 7,147 in 2013 to 7,562 in 2014. The proportion of miliary TB cases has constantly increased over the past 10 years, especially among women aged 80 years and older. The number of foreign-born TB patients continued to increase from 1,064 in 2013 to 1,101 in 2014. In 2014, new foreign-born TB patients aged 20-29 years accounted for 44.1% of all new TB patients in that age group. Among foreign-born TB patients, half were from the Philippines (26.5%) and China (23.5%). However, the number of patients from Vietnam and Nepal is increasing. Among foreign-born TB patients, 28% were regular employees, 26% were students, and 20% were unemployed. The changing trend in the nationality of foreign students entering Japan may at least partially explain the differences in TB burden among foreign-born patients, by country of birth. As we expect to see the proportion of foreign-born TB patients continue to rise, more tailored case identification and treatment support activities are needed.