Tuberculosis in an Indochinese refugee camp: epidemiology, management and therapeutic results

In a 3-year period tuberculosis was diagnosed in 629 patients in Thailand's largest camp for Kampuchean refugees: 62% had pulmonary disease and 38% extrapulmonary forms. Tuberculosis of lymph nodes was the most important extrapulmonary manifestation (50%). The mean annual notification rates were 0.5% and 0.24% for all forms and smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis respectively. There was a steep rise in the annual notification rate with increasing age. A 6-month course of fully supervised chemotherapy efficiently counteracted defaulting, early absconding and initial drug resistance. Seventy-three per cent of all patients remained on chemotherapy for the planned period; only 2% of the smear-positive patients failed bacteriologically on chemotherapy. Of the patients with the most common forms of extrapulmonary disease, 90% showed a favourable response to chemotherapy.