Urakawa M, Yasukawa A, Hoshino Y, Ota M, Hatamoto H, Hirao S, Zama T, Nagata Y, Yoshiyama T. TB-related technical enquiries received in Japan, 2017-2019.
Public Health Action 2022;
12:206-209. [PMID:
36561899 PMCID:
PMC9716821 DOI:
10.5588/pha.22.0053]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2022] [Accepted: 10/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
SETTING
Japan, an intermediate TB burden country.
OBJECTIVE
To review TB-related technical enquiries received at the Research Institute of Tuberculosis, Japan, from January 2017 to December 2019.
DESIGN
This was a cohort study.
RESULTS
A total of 2,197 enquiries were analysed. On average, 61.0 enquiries/month (range: 42-81) were received. The enquiry rates were highest for the Yamanashi (4.65/100,000 population) and Ishikawa (4.55) Prefectures, and lowest in the Yamagata (0.46) and Tochigi (0.56) Prefectures. The main organisations the enquirers belonged to were local governments (n = 1,585, 72.1%) and healthcare facilities (n = 307, 14.0%). The enquirers were medical doctors (n = 391, 17.8%), nurses (n = 1,207, 54.9%), other healthcare professionals (n = 57, 2.6%), the general public (n = 168, 7.6%) and others/unknown (n = 374, 17.0%). The most frequent enquiries were about TB diagnosis and treatment (n = 501, 22.8%), including laboratory diagnosis (n = 88, 4.0%), TB treatment in general (n = 93, 4.2%) and management of comorbidities (n = 86, 3.9%), followed by contact investigations (n = 385, 17.5%) and TB in foreigners (n = 344, 15.7%).
CONCLUSION
As the most frequent enquiries were about diagnosis and treatment of TB, the health ministry of Japan should maintain a few specialised TB institutions with TB physicians to provide technical assistance.
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