Differences in characteristics between Afghani and Iranian patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.

摘要

Tuberculosis (TB) imposes a heavy burden on the public health system of nations, especially in an unstable political environment such as Afghanistan. With a refugee population of 2.1 million, Afghanistan is the largest country of origin for refugees under United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) care. Additionally, Afghanistan has one of the highest TB prevalence rates in the world (333 per 100 000). Due to a dearth of information on the characteristics of Afghani TB patients in the world, there is no accurate planning for detection and prevention of active disease and latent infection among this patient group. Accordingly, we sought to investigate the characteristics of Afghani refugees with TB and compare them with those of native Iranian TB patients.