Missed opportunity for tuberculosis case detection in household contacts in a high burden setting

Abstract

Contact investigation remains an essential component of tuberculosis (TB) control, yet missed opportunities to trace, medically examine, and treat close contacts of newly diagnosed index TB cases persist. We report a new case of active TB in a 21 year-old woman who was a household contact of a known TB index case in Kampala, Uganda. She was identified during a house-to-house TB case finding survey using chronic cough (≥2 weeks). This case study re-emphasizes two important public health issues in relation to TB control in developing countries; the need to promote active contact investigations by National TB programs and the potential complementary role of active case finding in minimizing delays in TB detection especially in high burden settings like Uganda.

Pan African Medical Journal 2012; 12:8