Abstract:

Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics and treatment outcome of 151 hospitalized students with tuberculosis. Methods Clinical data of 151 tuberculosis students admitted to the Fourth People’s Hospital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from January 2019 to December 2020 were collected. Gender, age, student types, past history of anti-tuberculosis treatment, complicated disease, visit and treatment, first symptom, chest imaging examination, tuberculin skin test, pathogenic examination, drug resistance and tuberculosis type were retrospectively analyzed. Results Most of the 151 cases, there were 91 cases (60.3%), 146 cases (96.7%), 145 cases (96.0%) and 85 cases (56.3%) of college students, newly diagnosed tuberculosis, secondary pulmonary tuberculosis and symptomatic patients. Clinical symptoms were found in 108 cases (71.5%). Cough and expectoration accounted for 63.0% (68/108) and 50.9% (55/108), respectively. The delayed visit and treatment, and delayed diagnosis were 32.4% (35/108) and 28.7% (31/108), respectively. The tuberculin skin test was strongly positive in 86.1% (124/144), and the lesions with bilateral multi-lobar distribution and patches, exudation and consolidation were 75.5% (114/151) and 94.4% (142/151), respectively; tuberculous pleurisy was found in 30.5% (46/151) of the cases. The positive rate of etiology was 52.3% (79/151), and the drug resistance rate was 12.6% (19/151). There were 134 cases (88.7%) who completed the treatment, and the clinical cure rate was 94.8% (127/134). Conclusion The prognosis of hospitalized student tuberculosis patients was good in general. As the initial symptoms and chest lesions were not specific, delayed visits, missed diagnosis, misdiagnosis and the illness becoming worse were prone to happen. Tuberculosis should be identified as a common pulmonary disease, and tuberculosis screening and surveillance in schools should be done well, achieving early detection and early treatment, in order to avoid delay the condition advancement, drug-resistance transmission and aggregated epidemic.

Key words: Tuberculosis, School, Disease attributes, Treatment outcome