Author:
Abstract
Keywords
Abstract
Aim: Control of risk groups is essential for success in the struggle against tuberculosis. People living in low socioeconomic conditions, in crowded living conditions, in close contact with tuberculosis patients, imprisoned people and health care providers are more at risk compared to other individuals in society. Moreover, at the present time, patients with high hospitalization frequency and psychiatric comorbidities are considered to be in the high risk group for tuberculosis and active screening is recommended. In this study we aimed to determine the rate of latent tuberculosis in a psychotic patient group.
Methods: In the first phase of our descriptive and cross-sectional study, a Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) was performed on psychosis diagnosed patients in our hospital. TST evaluation was done by trained personnel and TST was accepted as positive with ≥15 mm in vaccinated patients and ≥10 mm in unvaccinated patients and was determined to be significant in terms of latent tuberculosis.
Results: The number of PPD positive cases in terms of BCG vaccination status in chronic psychotic and control groups were respectively 66 (33.2%) and 35 (16.8%) and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (p=0.001). In this study we found that psychotic patients must be carefully considered among risk groups in terms of latent tuberculosis.