A Tuberculosis Outbreak at a School - Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, 2019

Senlu Wang; Yan Cui; Nianqiang Liu; Xijiang Wang; Xinqi Wang; Weidong Wu; Canyou Zhang; Maiwulan Parehati; Zhi Li; Chunhui Yu; Lijie Zhang; Jun Cheng

doi:10.46234/ccdcw2020.240

A Tuberculosis Outbreak at a School - Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, 2019

China CDC Wkly. 2020 Nov 13;2(46):881-883. doi: 10.46234/ccdcw2020.240.

Authors

Senlu Wang^{1

2}, Yan Cui¹, Nianqiang Liu¹, Xijiang Wang¹, Xinqi Wang¹, Weidong Wu¹, Canyou Zhang³, Maiwulan Parehati¹, Zhi Li^{2

4}, Chunhui Yu⁵, Lijie Zhang³, Jun Cheng³

Affiliations

¹ Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China.
² Chinese Field Epidemiology Training Program, Beijing, China.
³ Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
⁴ Suqian Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Suqian, Jiangsu Province, China.
⁵ Xin Jiang Field Epidemiology Training Program,Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China.

Abstract

What is already known about this topic?: Worldwide, tuberculosis (TB) continues to be the most important cause of death from a single infectious agent, and China has a high TB burden. Although the reported incidence of TB in students is lower than that in general population, TB outbreaks in schools have continuously been reported in the past years, suggesting that schools are a high-risk setting for TB transmission.

What is added by this report?: In total, 31 TB patients were founded in students. Epidemiological linkage among all TB cases could not be determined due to absence of genome sequencing. However, based on the analysis of screening results, the index case was probably the source of transmission.

What are the implications for public health practice?: The preventative measurements should be implemented in schools. Adding TB examinations into entrance examinations and strengthening health education could find TB cases early, and improving ventilation could decrease the risk of TB transmission in schools.

Copyright and License information: Editorial Office of CCDCW, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention 2020.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Major Science and Technology Fund Project of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (2017A03006 -1), and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Research Fund Project of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (2019001).