TY - JOUR T1 - Variables responsible for tuberculin positivity of household contacts of sputum positive TB cases JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - p298 AU - Anishkumar Khan AU - Tushar Sahasrabudhe Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p298.abstract N2 - In high TB endemic countries such as India, chemoprophylaxis is routinely offered only to contacts below 6 years of age. The possibility however remains that the index case may have transmitted the infection to other family members before the diagnosis of the disease. We evaluated this in the context of Indian patients. We did a cross sectional study of household contacts of the sputum positive TB patients diagnosed from our center that had no other index case at home in present or in the past. The contacts were tested for tuberculosis infection using 5 TU PPD (Purified Protein Derivative) immediately after the diagnosis of the index case. An induration of more than 10 mm was taken as a positive result. A total of 179 household contacts of 50 index cases were evaluated. 85/179 (47.48%) were tuberculin positive. 6/23 (26.08%) contacts below 6 years of age were infected. 31/44 spouses (70.45%) were tuberculin positive as against 39/87 (44.82%) first degree relatives and 15/48 (31.25%) second degree relatives. 61/112 (54.46%) contacts sharing same bedroom were infected as against 24/67 (35.82%) not sharing the bedroom. The prevalence of infection of contacts correlated with the grade of sputum positivity of the index case. The variables that did not show any statistically significant correlation were presence of lung cavity, hemoptysis, literacy level and gender. This study suggests the need for offering chemoprophylaxis to the contacts sharing bedroom including spouses in addition to contact children below 6 years of age. ER -