Spectrum of Tuberculosis: A Study among Adolescent in a Tertiary Care Hospital at Shimla, North India

The study's goal is to examine the range of adolescents tuberculosis. Adolescence is characterised by a substantial increase in the incidence of tuberculosis, a known fact since the early 20th century. Most of the world's adolescents live in low-income and middle-income countries where tuberculosis remains common, and where they comprise a quarter of the population. Despite this, adolescents have not yet been addressed as a distinct population in tuberculosis policy or within tuberculosis treatment services, and emerging evidence suggests that current models of care do not meet their needs. Tuberculosis amongst adolescents is distinct from both childhood and adult tuberculosis in terms of incidence, disease manifestations and response. These peculiarities are due to issues related to immunity, hormone imbalance, social interactions and psychology unique to this phase of life. Adolescent tuberculosis remains a less studied area in India. We analyzed demographic, clinical and paraclinical data from 477 adolescents (10-19 years of age) diagnosed to have Tuberculosis, who reported to the in the Department of paediatrics, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla between the years 2010 and 2014. The incidence of tuberculosis among hospital visiting adolescents was 0.8%. The incidence in females (1.00 %) was significantly more in comparison to males (0.63 %) with females having (OR1.60) 1.60 times more odds of suffering from Tuberculosis than males (p< 0.001). Isolated Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) was seen in 52% cases, extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) in 40 % and combined PTB with EPTB in 8 % cases. The most common forms of extrapulmonary tuberculosis were pleural effusion (25.6%) and central nervous system tuberculosis (24.7%). Infiltration (consolidation) was the most common chest x-ray finding (53.7 %). Most instances of tuberculosis were caused by pulmonary illness. The most frequent extrapulmonary types were isolated pleural effusion, tuberculosis of the central nervous system, and abdominal TB, whereas lymphadenitis was less frequent. In compared to men, females had a considerably higher incidence (P<0.001).